Life After It
by Cain's acquaintance
Summary: Continuing on from my last story /s/7846857/1/les aventures de valkyrie cain This is a selection of short stories and drabbles, please Read and Review!
1. The Sleepover

Skulduggery Pleasant- Life after IT

Quick author's note- I lost my password for my old story so I am starting again with a whole new story but it's about life after the Remnant has been removed from Tanith. Hope you enjoy!

Life was pretty good, Valkyrie had to admit it. Tanith was back and de-remnanted, now that's a new word Valkyrie was sure. After the week of recovery in Kenspeckles 'loving' care, she was more than happy when Tanith asked if she wanted to have a sleepover and find out what had been happening when she was gone.

Here is where we begin and join the story.

Tanith flawlessly turned the bend up to Gordon's Mansion, flicking up the gravel with ease while Valkyrie just watched in awe and made yet another mental note of asking Tanith for driving lessons from her. She would probably forget by the next time she was on the bike though. Tanith turned around to se Valkyrie with tears in her eyes from going so fast and her hands slightly shaking from the adrenaline, she let out a low chuckle. Together they reached the front door and Valkyrie fumbled around looking for the key that was under the slightly ugly gnome by the front door, Skulduggery insulted it every time he was here, one of the few immature things he likes to do, along with the continuing pranks that occur and doing impressions of people when he was very rarely in the wrong. After a worrying few seconds when she couldn't find it, she was relieved when she heard the gently jingle of the keys. Upon opening the door, Valkyrie noticed that there were lots of pot noodle wrappers, bottles of alcohol and an overpowering scent of lynx in the air. As they ascended the staircase to one of the many bedrooms, Tanith unsheathed her sword and Valkyrie summoned shadows. A low mumbling sound echoed around the house, they found the source of the noise and after counting down they barged the door down.

What they saw was something that they weren't expecting. Fletcher was sat on the bed cross legged, with a laptop watching a video with what looked like a cat and empty cans of beer around hm. They exchanged puzzled looks until they the girls realised how wasted Fletcher was and started laughing. As they leaned on each other for support the penny dropped on Fletcher that they were laughing at him and he pouted and teleported. Well at least they found out where Fletcher has been hiding.

Before they could start their sleepover, they decided to make small talk to pass the time, including things like where good clubs are around Ireland and how much marshmallow's should cost. Once satisfied they grabbed some duvets and set up a little fort in the living room and sat inside. Keeping a couple bottles of whatever Fletcher was drinking to keep up the good mood, they could finally begin going back to old times before Tanith was taken.

"So start from the beginning, what happened after I became it?" Asked a curious Tanith, trusting Valkyrie for an honest answer.

"Once you were taken you started to get me to go all evil and shiz, attacked me a few times and then ran away"

"WHAT! Oh Val I'm so sorry, you know I would never mean to hurt you right?" Screeched Tanith

"Yeah of course, it's what kept me looking for you" Valkyrie smiled back, wincing slightly at how loud Tanith had gotten.

"What do you mean I ran away? Where did I go?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" Valkyrie asked, unsure how Tanith would re-act.

"We aren't 100% sure where you went but you, well the Remnant went with Sanguine."

Valkyrie had barely finished her sentence when Tanith had gasped, causing Valkyrie to jump out of fright.

"OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD! WHAT THE HELL! SANGUINE?! ON NO, DID I KISS HIM? PLEASE SAY I DIDN'T OR I DON'T THINK I WILL BE ABLE SO SWALLOW ANYMORE!" Tanith looking like a startled owl. All Valkyrie could manage was a simple nod and that was enough. After a few awkward minutes, Tanith spoke slowly.

"Well then, remind me to kick his arse doubly hard next time I see him." And with that the girls began to play truth or dare in their fort.


	2. The Morning After

Chapter Two- The Morning After

As Skulduggery opened the front door to Gordon's Mansion with the key Valkyrie had trusted with him, nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to see. The once fort was now upturned and on top of what seemed to be a corpse as it was so still, at least 20 cans of alcopop scattered on the floor and Tanith laying upside down watching what appeared to be the news, however Tanith was nodding and repeating the last few words of a sentence. When Skulduggery called out to get her attention, she jumped a good few feet in the air before becoming slightly disorientated.

As Skulduggery approached her, she started grumbling and stretching out knots in her neck. He rolled his eyes at how slow it was taking to do simply tasks, she then stood up while having to lean on the sofa for support and asked.

"Heya Skul, what are you doing here so early?"

"Tanith, it's 2 in the afternoon. Why were you just laying there talking to yourself?"

"It was around 10 when I last looked. Hmm. Oh well."

"Have you seen Valkyrie around here, we always meet up in the morning but when I got no response I drove here."

"Well the last thing I remember was telling her to slide down the banister on her arse, and then...I can't remember, she must be around here somewhere."

After spending a few minutes looking around the house in all the bedrooms they came back downstairs and saw the familiar shape on the floor by the ruins of the fort. He knelt down next to it and gently shook Valkyrie's shoulder; he got no answer so did it again. He repeated this at least five times with concern in his voice until he looked up to Tanith to find she wasn't there.

As he waited, he heard through his non-existent ears the tap being run and something heavy being picked up. All of a sudden Tanith came sprinting into the room with a rather large jug full of cold water. She stood right above her, looked at Skulduggery and asked him. "Can I?" When she got a cheeky nod she replied with a dirty grin and poured all the water out onto Valkyrie.

She slowly opened her eyes which was a huge mistake as they filled up and mixed with her eye liner, she then jumped up in shock as realisation kicked in as to what just happened. She immediately turned to Tanith with death in her eyes...

Tanith started laughing and fell to her knees in joy as to how well her little prank had worked, after Valkyrie shoved her over she then pulled her up and said hello to Skulduggery who had been standing there the whole time glad that he had no emotions to give away how amused he was at Valkyrie being woken up in such a way. He really was glad Tanith was back. As he came out of his daydream, he saw a soaking Valkyrie hugging a reluctant Tanith and then joining in the laughter, even Skulduggery found it contagious.


	3. The Confrontation

Chapter 3- The Confrontation 

After making up after Valkyrie's rude awakening, the girls got dressed and followed Skulduggery outside.

"So how come the house is in such a mess, there was only two of you?"

When he got two rather unfeminine grunts as a response he then turned to Valkyrie.

"And you, how the hell did you manage to get in such a state, pass out under all the chairs and blankets, oh well you are making up for it know with your hangover!" He chuckled to himself and turned to an angry looking Valkyrie and a worn out Tanith, he decided best to shut up and let them sleep in the Bentley.

As he watched Valkyrie sleep in her usual position, in the front, seat as far back as it could go and her feet where the CD's were kept. He sighed as he was unable to get to his music and had to make a tough decision. Sit in silence as the girls gathered some energy or endure pop music on the radio. He decided on the latter and turned on the radio to FM and listened intently, something with the same four chords played, the drums beat was fast and repetitive and the singing was more like screeching. He quickly turned it off and sat in silence wondering if he should wake Valkyrie up so he didn't feel so lonely, seeing how peaceful she was he decided against it.

Finally they pulled up at the sanctuary and he honked the horn of the Bentley which only resulted in two slaps to the face. He grinned his non-existent grin yet again today, he knew he was in a good mood, and even Valkyrie picked up on it and began joining in his jokes with Tanith.

As they stepped through the double doors, they passed familiar sorcerers and mages. A few came over to welcome Tanith back while Valkyrie and Skulduggery stood to the side awkwardly. Eventually she was done and they could pick up Skulduggery extra hat he needed so desperately. Once he was sure it was the right one they then left to find Ghastly and decide what they could do for the rest of the day, Valkyrie knew the real reason why Tanith was so eager to get to Ghastly.

Once they pulled up Skulduggery commented on how he couldn't wait until Ghastly got his full body facade like he would get, he then realised how his bad choice of words and the smoothness of his voice made the two slightly immature girls burst out laughing.

However her laughter was cut short when she stepped through the entrance to Bespokes Tailors..


	4. Sparks Flying

Chapter 4- Sparks flying

"What the hell are you doing here?" Valkyrie gasped.

"I was just getting some new clothes from my old friend Ghastly, what are you doing here?" Fletcher snarled as he put his arm around Ghastly.

Skulduggery and Tanith awkwardly slid away from the oncoming argument and walked over to Ghastly. The anger on Valkyrie's face was all too real; however the look on Fletchers was less rage and more agonized.

"I think you will find Valkyrie that he was here because the hedgehog lost his jumper again and practically begged me to make him a new one." He said calmly as he untangled his arm from his shoulders and joined Skulduggery and Tanith, sliding his hands gently into hers.

Valkyrie stood with a sly yet slightly smug expression on her face as Fletcher turned red either from anger or embarrassment, she was happy with either. Unable to think or anything witty or somewhat clever he decided best to just respond with something that was below the belt even for him.

"So how's the vampire nowadays? Still giving that savage monster false hope that someone likes him?"

Valkyrie just stared in shock and got ready to punch him across his self-absorbent mug. Tanith and Ghastly immediately glared at him and also got ready to fight, in perfect synch. However Skulduggery took the opportunity he had been waiting months for and used air to push him up against the wall and then flashed over there to give him a few punches, not enough to knock him unconscious, just enough to make him realise his mistake. Once Skulduggery stopped, he stepped back next to Valkyrie and looked down at her, Valkyrie knew he was smiling.

"How come you always protect Valkyrie over me?!" He practically screeched.

"Because she doesn't act like a slow porcupine with his head up his arse." Skulduggery responded calmly, obviously enjoying the whole conversation.

"Whatever, I don't need you when I have Skye!" Fletcher uttered as he pulled himself off the floor and dusted himself off.

They all turned to look at him in confusion, just in time to see him with a cocky grin and smirk at Valkyrie, who suddenly became flustered and feared becoming red in shock, and teleport.

"I can't believe we ever let that bastard help us..." Tanith muttered, trying to break the awkward silence that filled the room like a fog. Skulduggery just looked back into her eyes and then cocked his head, unsure on what to do as Valkyrie did her best to not let her eyes start to water. She didn't love him, yet didn't hate him; she viewed him as a big brother that won't stop teasing her. Skulduggery decided on the safest option, he pulled her into a hug and felt her melt slightly into him. His imaginary heart flared up and his bones felt warm suddenly from her body heat. He wondered if she felt the same way.

As Skulduggery pulled her into the hug, Valkyrie could feel his strong yet comforting frame against her and allowed herself to be sucked into it and enjoyed the almost magical feeling she got and how safe she felt to be in his arms. She then wondered if he felt the same way.

When it ended, she came back into the real world; she managed a small smile to Ghastly who seemed to feel so uncomfortable about what had just happened, he just smiled back. Suddenly she felt herself being dragged back by her best friend in leather and pulled up the stairs into the bedroom to discuss girl talk about boy problems, Skulduggery and Ghastly just rolled their eyes at each other, well one of them did at least, and sat down to read the paper and have man talk about cars.


	5. Amusement park

The Skul crew go to an amusement park

Where are we going Skul?" Valkyrie asked for the umpteenth time.

"Just sit back and wait like a normal person." Valkyrie continued her sulk with an impressive amount of commitment, Skulduggery had literally pushed them into the Bentley for their day off, she was in her normal position next to him, in the back was Tanith and Ghastly, holding hands and occasionally sharing a kiss. Every time this happened everyone would group and complain but this just made it more entertaining for them. Poor Fletcher was pushed up against the side, trying to get as far away from the amount of PDA going on.

AN hour and a half later, they arrived. Valkyrie quickly bundled out of the car after Fletchers interesting speech on why teletubbies should be a movie. The others then got out as well and they walked a few streets until they came to a field, there was a sign that read...

"THORPE PARK!" Both the girls screamed and looked at each other in glee. Fletcher paled slightly. Skulduggery and Ghastly looked at each other and smiled, they had been on quite a few fair rides over the years and he had been meaning to come here, now he could do it with Valkyrie, he lit up even more inside.

Tanith started to drag Valkyrie to the entrance until Valkyrie darted ahead and started to drag Tanith herself, their laughter was almost deafening. They patiently waited in the que to get in, Valkyrie and Tanith whispering to themselves and turning to giggle at the boys every now and then, this made them worry slightly and shuffled uncomfortably. When finally at the front Skulduggery pulled out his ever so smart wallet and hand over a large wad of money, Valkyrie began to feel slightly guilty about the amount of money until she remembered that money means very little to a skeleton. The worker counted the money and then nodded and mumbled gruffly. They ran inside, leaving a blonde boy to trundle in after.

The first ride they went on was stealth, they decided to start off with the big ones, then some smaller ones for Fletcher while they had lunch and then finish with the water ones.

After a while the girls got bored of how slow the others were being and ran off, Ghastly and Skulduggery chased them for about ten minutes until they gave up and found a shop and sat reading the paper, they looked up to see two giggly girls soaked in water, Skulduggery sighed and raised his hand to dry them off.

7 hours later and lots of tears later, the girls were exhausted and full of happiness, Fletcher was still in tears after being pushed onto SAW the ride, Ghastly was reading a book quietly Skulduggery was too busy think about all the memories he would take away from today; Valkyrie and Tanith's nonstop laughter, Ghastly's inability to get sick or scream on a ride and Fletcher throwing up in a bin.

Please Read and Review, I have tons of short drabbles like these coming up


	6. Training With Tanith

Training with Tanith

Valkyrie woke to the sound of her phone buzzing on the desk beside her bed; she reached out begrudgingly as she let some cold air in and flipped it open to see a message from Tanith, it read _'Rise and shine Val, time for training! ;)' _She sighed and forced herself out of bed and put on her protective clothing. At first training with Tanith was fun, doing some fitness and fun combat but mainly because Tanith went easy on her. Now that Valkyrie was older, she got the full force of Tanith Low, and it hurt, it hurt alot.

Once she was ready she texted her to let her know, a matter of minutes later the sound of a roaring motorbike filled the street and Valkyrie cursed Tanith's name for drawing attention to herself, although she knew that this was the childish side of Tanith that she couldn't control. Once sure that no-one was looking she leapt out of the window and landed gracefully and jogged over to Tanith who had her sneaky grin on, making Valkyrie slightly unsure about riding with her, however it was too late as Tanith was already pulling her in front of her onto the bike and pulling the spare helmet on her head.

As usual Tanith took the country lanes where there were no speed cameras so she could go as fast as she dared, making them laugh with adrenaline. Once at the sanctuary where a new training centre had been set up because of their friends in high places, they parked up and headed inside, Valkyrie was already bracing herself for pain whereas Tanith was looking forward to show Valkyrie a new move she had been saving.

They walked down the dark stairs and into the gym, not many sorcerers came here as they didn't need to train any more, although every now and then a new young mage from other countries would come along, Valkyrie and Tanith always becoming acquainted with the male ones. There was stuff like running machines, punch bags, ropes and best of all an old boxing ring set up by Ghastly. They dumped their bags and turned to each other.

"You ready?"

"Not really Tanith, last time you almost killed me, Kenspeckle treated you like Skulduggery!"

"Okay, I promise not to throw you out of a window"

"You promise?"

"Yup!" She replied, popping the P, little did Valkyrie know that Tanith had her fingers crossed.

Tanith started off by them warming up, they had small talk about Ghastly and if Valkyrie wanted a boyfriend yet or if it was still too soon, Valkyrie wasn't paying attention, she was too busy worrying about what was yet to come. She snapped out her day dream when she realised she was being pushed into the boxing rings by Tanith. It was no longer a laugh to her, if she didn't dodge, she could break her nose. And to make it worse she looked up to see Skulduggery and Ghastly cheering their names, Ghastly for Tanith and Skulduggery for Valkyrie, they didn't understand how vicious Tanith got either. Then she turned back around to see a fist swinging towards her face.

Her immediate reaction was to get low but this time she tried to focus on the things that Tanith was shouting like "TO THE SIDE!" and "QUICKER VAL, QUICKER!" After around four punches to the head she got the hand of it and started adjusting to Tanith rhythm. She stopped and hugged her little sister saying how proud she was, it was a trap though, and it was Tanith's secret choke hold where instead of two fingers or a hand, she crushed her neck in a hug style making it impossible for her to move.

Valkyrie struggled and fought but she was slightly weaker than Tanith, instead of ripping free though she decided to fake down low bringing Tanith to one knee on the floor and then using all her strength to throw her off in a semi circle in the other direction. It was hard but when she looked up, Valkyrie saw Tanith with a massive grin on her face and two cheering boys up top. Feeling rather smug she bowed making them all laugh.

The girls finished off their training for a couple more hours until they were both so tired they went to find the nearest McDonalds. Training with Tanith wasn't as painful as she expected, Valkyrie reflected.

Please Read and Review!


	7. Valkyrie Vs Red Bull

Valkyrie Vs Red Bull

Yet again, all was quiet at Gordon's mansion. Tanith couldn't believe her often this happens and each time she gets annoyed with sitting still, it's not in her system. Tanith wants to be out on her bike or training or on a case. She was so desperate she thought about visiting China, tensing she washed away the thought. The rest of the Skul crew; Valkyrie, Fletcher, Ghastly and of course Skulduggery seemed happy enough watching some old film with cowboys. She sighed and tried to sleep it over.

When she opened her eyes it was the ending credits and Valkyrie was getting up away from Fletcher and putting the empty popcorn bowls in the sink. She followed her into the kitchen and gave her a massive bear hug, catching her off guard. She almost screamed but instead her body decided to respond with a yawn, feeling slightly like Sanguine after the dismal response she poked her arm.

"That film was so boring"

"I kinda liked it, you slept all through it so don't judge." Valkyrie yawned again, barely managing to keep her eyes open.

"Oi! Quit yawning, t'is rude!"

"Sorry Tan, I can't keep my eyes open and it's only bloody 7:30, I want to stay up for our sleepover!"

"Have you tried a thing called coffee?" she asked.

"Skulduggery has banned me from having it after last time..."

And as soon as she finished her sentence, Tanith was already sprinting out the door and jumped onto her bike. Valkyrie just shrugged and lay back on the sofa in the other room as they boys discussed modern music and how Skulduggery didn't understand the thing Fletcher played called Dubstep. She found the whole argument rather amusing and occasionally added in comments like "Skul, have you felt the bass drop yet?" making him even more confused.

Suddenly the back door opened with a bang and they turned to see Tanith with a evil grin on her face, slightly scared they all turned away hoping they wouldn't get caught in Tanith's prank or whatever she was plotting. Valkyrie felt herself being dragged into the other room but was so tired she let it happen.

"I bet skulduggery hasn't banned you from these!?"

In her hand was a chilled can of Red Bull, she had seen these before but always thought they were too expensive to bother getting one. She shook her head at Tanith who nudged her to open it. Valkyrie pulled open the metal tab; the loud hiss filled the otherwise quiet room making Skulduggery wonder what the noise was so went to investigate. As he turned the corner to enter he saw a horrible sight. Valkyrie taking a huge sip of energy drink. He lunged forward and ripped it out her hands but it was too late, it was already entering her bloodstream, he cursed as Valkyrie began buzzing, like literally buzzing. Tanith started rolling on the floor laughing at her friend making weird noises and being unable to control herself. Skulduggery began cursing Tanith's name; this made Ghastly and Fletcher enter to see what his girlfriend had done to make Skulduggery annoyed, they too began laughing. Skulduggery then stopped shouting at Tanith and turned to see Valkyrie doing laps of the kitchen while singing something about how she loved waffles.

She stopped suddenly, made a bird noise and ran for the window and leapt throw the glass and face planting with style. The others raced outside to help but she was already up and sprinting around the garden pretending she was a phoenix in harry potter with a flame in her hand. Skulduggery cursed at Tanith again who was still laughing her head off.

The chase around Ireland continued for a few more hours until they found her asleep in a tree 3 miles away from Gordon's house. The only way they found her was the reports of trees being set on fire around neighbouring towns. They carried her back to the Bentley and plonked her in her normal seat. Although there would be a lot of explaining to the shocked mortals, Skulduggery had to admit it was the most fun they had had in months. He chuckled quietly as Valkyrie began to snore in her well earned sleep, while a rather smug Tanith was in the back holding hands with a certain Tailor. Leaving Fletcher to stare out the window by himself, disliking the amount of kissing going on next to him.


	8. Valkyrie on the internet

Valkyrie on the internet

Skulduggery stirred in his meditation as he heard someone giggling upstairs, he got up slowly and knocked on Ghastly's room, when he got no answer he opened it up to see a rather nasty image. He was lying on top of Tanith with his face submerged in her golden hair. He cried out and they immediately separated and stared at Skulduggery in anger.

"WHAT THE HELL SKULDUGGERY!" Cried Tanith

"Sorry I heard someone giggling and thought it was you..." As he trailed off he noticed that a blonde hedgehog had appeared next to him.

"What's with all the shouting?" Fletcher mumbled.

"Someone is in the house and won't stop giggling and chanting something over and over again, where is Val?"

"I think she is upstairs." Fletcher looked half asleep but woke up suddenly when they realised Valkyrie was in danger.

Tanith grabbed her sword, Ghastly put on some decent clothes, Skulduggery readjusted his hat and Fletcher went and put on some hair gel.

They stood outside her door where the source of the noise was, Skulduggery held up three fingers and counted down. Once the last one was down they all charged in, breaking down Valkyrie's door in the process. Valkyrie was sat in a small ball on her chair in front of her laptop, all alone in the dark with only the electronic light illuminating the room and stopped laughing along with the Nyan cat video and froze in shock at the impressive entrance by the Skul crew. They all relaxed and put away the weapons.

"Hi." Valkyrie whispered sheepishly.

"Dammit Val, it's half three in the morning, why are you up watching YouTube videos?" Skulduggery asked wandering over to Valkyrie to hug her, he had almost had an imaginary heart attack.

She shrugged and smiled at Tanith who was finding the whole thing hilarious, however Ghastly and Fletcher were less than impressed. Valkyrie raised her eyebrow at Fletcher as he looked down to see he was only sleeping in boxers, he went an impressive colour of red and teleported immediately leaving Valkyrie and Tanith to wink at each other and pull dirty grins. The two men sighed and dragged their sick minded females back to bed.

Once Tanith and Ghastly were in their room, Skulduggery lead Valkyrie into her room and waited while Valkyrie was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. Then Skulduggery pulled Valkyrie into another hug, they were like his drug and he loved getting his fix.

"So why were you sat there laughing at an electronic cat? The video said it was 10 hours long, you were a good few hours in..." Amusement was clear in his voice

"I fell into the trap of the internet, Ravel sent me the link and I couldn't stop-"

She was cut short by the sound of Skulduggery laughing, when he didn't stop she pushed him outside and climbed into her own bed, falling asleep smiling.

Hope you like it, it's slightly smaller but the same thing happens to me all the time. I go on YouTube and BAM! Its half three in the morning, silly internet...


	9. Horse Riding With China

Horse riding with China

Valkyrie woke up to her phone vibrating; it was rather familiar nowadays as her friends called her, mainly Skulduggery. She used it as her own alarm clock. So when she answered the phone calling him a numbskull, she broke down laughing at the pun. However her laughter was cut short abruptly by a beautiful voice.

"Good morning Valkyrie, I fail to see the reason behind your psychotic laughing."

"Oh hi China, I was expecting Skulduggery to call, I was saving that joke for him. Promise you won't steal it!" A gentle laugh came through the phone making Valkyrie smile slightly.

"No promises, now I have a proposal-"

"Whoa! Are you coming onto me?" Valkyrie joked using her sisters well known phrase that made her chuckle each time.

"You wish, now all jokes aside, a while ago I was riding my horse when I thought that you might enjoy it. However I never got round to inviting you so here it is."

"So... We are going horse riding" Valkyrie responded awkwardly.

"Please don't make this any harder than this already is for me, would or wouldn't you like to come with me for a trek around the countryside, I have the perfect horse picked out for you."

"Sure China that sounds good, let me just call Skulduggery to let him know where I am, I will come to yours in about an hour, Bye."

She called Skulduggery to let him know and although he seemed slightly disappointed she then asked if he wanted to join her and Tanith's movie night with Ghastly and he immediately piped back up. She got ready in normal hoody and skinny jeans with some red converse and hailed a cab as she couldn't be arsed to call Tanith who would most likely want to start an argument with China.

Years ago China would have men at her beck and call, but in recent years she had found herself cornered in the Library, isolated. She had recently been finding talking to Valkyrie very interesting and almost addictive. Instead of reading in books for information, she could get small and funny anecdotes about the cases they were on. She was really looking forward to possibly starting a frequent hobby with Valkyrie.

Valkyrie entered the corridor and knocked on the door opposite the Library, upon hearing a small voice say she was coming she stepped back and double checked her clothing. Although Valkyrie wasn't too self conscious, she always felt she paled next to China's beauty. China never felt comfortable hugging a friend and so simply exchanged verbal greeting, much unlike Valkyrie and Tanith who would always bear hug each other and bump fists or something stupid They walked though her apartment and took the stairs down to her garage, Valkyrie wondered how Skulduggery knew this was actually her garage all those years ago. They drove with China asking questions about the reports she had of burnt trees around Haggard and Valkyrie just denied all accusations that it was her and felt herself go red. She was now banned from coffee AND Red Bull.

Once there Valkyrie gawped at how beautiful the scenery, it was based on top of a cliff with a simple hut that contained various horses in an open enclosure with handlers cleaning it out. China basked in glory at Valkyrie's reaction to her prized property and instructed her to follow. Valkyrie did so without questioning but began to wonder how she could get the others down here as well; she imagined it as a fun day out for the Skul crew. She chuckled at the thought of Fletcher falling of a horse.

She was handed a helmet and some boots, and then managed to climb onto the huge horse, using the air to assist her. China began explaining how you control the horse, not the other way round. Valkyrie began to feel worried that she would fall off. China gently nudged her horse to begin slowly walking forward and Valkyrie's did the same and she followed. For a few miles they just talked and enjoy the scenery until they slowed and China turned to her.

"Ready for a challenge?" She asked with a smirk.

"Urm... Sure?" She mumbled and China then grabbed the reins of Valkyrie's horse and whipped them, her horse then reared, almost making her fall although her reactions saved her and she held on for dear life. Her horse then took off at alarming speed with China who was grinning and laughing that sweet laugh again. For a couple miles she didn't like not knowing how to control a horse, until she then understood how it worked and started to laugh along as well.

They lost all source of time and only managed to stop laughing when they realised the sky was turning orange, then they turned back to the stable. On the way back China asked Valkyrie if she would like to do it more often and Valkyrie couldn't keep the grin off her face and nodded frantically, making China feel happy and warm inside at her 'friends' reaction. China was glad she had met Valkyrie all those years ago as she made her feel human again.

Valkyrie asked if she could be dropped off at Gordon's mansion for the movie night, she thought about asking China but she knew that not only would it be uncomfortable for China but Tanith would probably try to kill her or something sad. They pulled up Valkyrie turned to China.

"Thanks for today, maybe we could make it a weekly thing or something?"

Just then a very angry looking blonde woman came stalking out of the front door with her sword unsheathed...


	10. Horse Riding with China Part 2 and Movie

Horse Riding with China Part 2 and Movie Night

Valkyrie prayed to god that Tanith would stop charging but when nothing happened she got out of the car to stop her, but when she was out of the car China smiled and then drove off leaving Tanith to grabbed Valkyrie by her collar and drag her back into the house.

"Tanith! ...The hell?" she barely managed to choke out. Tanith didn't respond and just threw her down onto the sofa inside and had her hand on her hip and a raised eyebrow waiting for an answer.

"What Tanith, why did you grab me?"

Tanith looked ready to explode, "Have you forgotten what we were going to do tonight?"

For the first time in a few hours Valkyrie looked at the clock, it ready half nine. She went red and sunk into the sofa. She heard Ghastly and Skulduggery chuckling to her right.

"I'm sorry Tanith, I lost track of time" She mumbled.

Tanith couldn't keep the smile off her face for long and eventually succumbed and broke down into hysterics and pulled Valkyrie into a bone crushing hug. The penny dropped they were winding her up and she hit Tanith on the arm and sulked slightly. The two men were still giggling like school girls so she decided to go and make popcorn for her and Tanith.

When she returned though Tanith and Ghastly were snuggled up on the sofa, she decided to go sit on the other slightly smaller sofa with the popcorn making Tanith moan for some, Valkyrie decided to torture her and took loads of it and ate it all at once, resulting in her almost chocking and mainly being awkward.

"Alrighty then, what type of movie shall we watch?" Skulduggery asked crouched looking in the large collaboration of movies the Skul crew kept here.

"A scary one!" Tanith whispered in a scary voice, unnerving everyone except Ghastly who laughed and hugged her closer.

"A romantic one!" Ghastly replied in a low and smooth voice making Tanith shudder.

"A comedy!" Fletcher cried out and made everyone turn in shock at his sudden arrival.

"A detective one!" Skulduggery announced and tilted his head up allowing smugness to elope.

When they realised the argument was going nowhere they simultaneously turned to Valkyrie.

"Hey Val, which one would you like; Insidious, Titanic, The Nutty Professor or Sherlock Holmes?" Skulduggery asked in his lovely velvety voice making her slightly love struck.

"Urm... I guess I would like to see Titanic as I haven't seen it." She looked around to see annoyed faces from Tanith and Fletcher but gentle smiles from Ghastly and Skulduggery.

An hour into the film and Valkyrie was almost asleep; her eyes were betraying her when she just wanted to cuddle with Skulduggery. The ship was hit and the posh people wanted to get off first, that's all she was paying attention to. The main character was quite nice looking, during the sex scene herself and Tanith were pulling dirty looks to each other. She imagined that was what Skulduggery looked like when he had a body, but she would never dare to ask him.

She had found herself getting really into the story line, trying to see if she could hold her breath long enough when the boat finally went down, failing miserably but making Skulduggery laugh. The scene where Jack and Rose were on the door and she doesn't move over made her so angry she almost shouted at the TV, and when Jack would wake up she felt tears brimming on her eyes. It took a lot of strength to keep them hidden.

Her best efforts failed her when Jack sank slowly and her eyes made contact with Tanith who was feeling the same as her and they began sobbing. Tanith got up off of Ghastly and Valkyrie got up off Skulduggery and they say on the floor hugging and calling Rose a selfish bitch. Ghastly and Skulduggery rolled their eyes and just sat back and watched the rest of the movie and Fletcher silently left the room before he too joined in the tears...


	11. Valkyrie Hates Injections

Valkyrie hates injections

"I really am sorry about that Valkyrie; I thought you would catch it..." Skulduggery trailed off his sentence as a rather grumpy Valkyrie Cain sat in the seat next to him, with blood dribbling down her face.

"I wasn't expecting that to fly at my face, AHH its sore!" Valkyrie had her head tipped back and her nose pinched.

"Oh well at least we got Sanguine, we also let Tanith have a few punches on him." This made Valkyrie smile.

After a short while Valkyrie turned to Skulduggery with a slightly creepy smile.

"You are going to get soooooo told off by Kenspeckle!"

"I know don't remind me."

Her nose didn't hurt anymore; it was just bleeding uncontrollably, so she slightly swaggered into the medical bay and almost laughed at Clarabelle's gawping reaction to the blood all on her chin.

"Oh Valkyrie, what happened now? Step into the cubicle. You. Pleasant. Wait." He almost growled the ending. Skulduggery resembled a child that got told no more sweets and trundled over to the waiting room with his head down, this made Valkyrie chuckle and he looked up and she swore he was sulking.

"So explain what happened again?" Humour clear in his voice as he finished cleaning Valkyrie.

"Well, basically we were driving along an empty road with Tanith and Ghastly in the back, they were making out again" She whispered "When we saw Sanguine walking along the pavement, I called this out to Skul and Tanith immediately jumped out and began punching him, Ghastly followed. Skul motioned for me to do the same and then shouted now. I had no idea what he was doing but it turned out he threw the spare baseball bat out of the window for me to go and hit Sanguine with. Let's just say it hurt alot. Everyone stopped and looked at me as blood started pouring out my face, then Skulduggery came over laughing slightly at how I was trying to stop the blood." She did an impression of a rabbit cleaning it nose making Kenspeckle laugh, it was a rare sound. "Tanith and Ghastly continued beating the crap out of Sanguine and then took him back to jail. To make the day even better, when we were going back to the Bentley, he threw the keys at me to catch and they hit me again in the face. He looked like a sad little puppy and went all quiet."

Kenspeckle couldn't stop laughing, making Valkyrie join in as well. His loud and joy-filled laughing echoed all through the medical bay, making Skulduggery come through feeling looking rather sheepish.

Kenspeckle continued chuckling, as he checked Valkyrie over. He noticed something on his file.

"Have you had a HPV Valkyrie, girls around your age have it. Even if your reflection has it, it won't transfer over to you."

"I think my reflection had it, I hated the memory."

"Ah! I shall go and prepare the needle in that case" Kenspeckle grumbled, back to his usual grouchy self, ignoring the last half of her sentence.

"Oh hell..." she murmured when she saw the size of the needle.

"What's the matter; you've defeated faceless ones, saved the world and rescued your best friend from a Remnant. Why did you flinch at a needle?" Valkyrie mumbled something unintelligible.

"Sorry Valkyrie what was that?" Skulduggery asked leaning in close to her face, if he had a face it would have a massive grin.

"I don't like needles, they scare me..." She looked pale and truly scared. Skulduggery melted and sat on the bed next to her and held her hand.

Kenspeckle came back after hearing their conversation and got it over with as fast as possible. It hurt more second time round and she did her best not to cry. Skulduggery tilted his head to the side, she knew he was trying to comfort her and she rested for a few hours, with Skulduggery next to her...

HEY! If you haven't noticed yet I kinda like Valduggery but I also ship Valith, Fletcherie, Chalkyrie and Ghalith! Hope you like it! R&R!


	12. Slender Man

Slender Man.

Tanith was texting Valkyrie about her date last night when all of a sudden there was a scream on the other end of the phone, it made Valkyrie jump a mile high and panic course through her.

"TANITH? TANITH ARE YOU THERE? HELLO?" She shouted and began running round her room collecting her ring and putting on her protective clothing to co and help her friend.

"Ahahahah..." Tanith laughed uneasily. "Don't worry Val, Slendy just got me"

"Wait, who?" She was still ready to jump out the window and sprint to help her friend.

"Slendy, AKA Slender Man..." She did her best scary voice that achieved its purpose by sending chills down her spine.

"I don't know how he is, what does he look like?"

"You know what; I'll come and get you in ten minutes." She hung up and Valkyrie tried to relax but her mind began to wonder, what had made the great Tanith Low scream in fright?

On time as promised, Tanith pulled up outside and Valkyrie jogged over and hopped on. Tanith pushed the spare helmet on her head and they whizzed off down the dark street. Tanith was able to talk with ease at high speeds however Valkyrie still found it very hard to maintain breath.

They arrived at Bespokes tailors and walked through. Ghastly and Fletcher were having a game of cards, Ghastly being a master was sat back lazily and in full control of the game, whereas Fletcher was sat on the edge of his sit and rocking slightly. Valkyrie wondered what he had bet on this game.

They climbed up to the attack were in recent weeks Tanith too had become sucked into the trap of the internet, they grabbed two swivel chairs and sat down in front of it. She handed Valkyrie half of the headphones and turned the sound up to full.

"It adds more atmosphere." She said as she closed the blinds and turned off the lights. Valkyrie was beginning to feel unsure about this but she didn't want to admit a fear to Tanith as she would make the most of it and terrorise her for the rest of her life. The screen went black and then 'Slender' came up in white scribble. Tanith clicked play and the screen changed to a first person game where you were walking through a forest at night with restricted sight and a small torch. The only sound was the crunching of footsteps.

They walked for a few minutes with nothing and only Tanith's mutterings. They say a white note on a tree and collected it. They high fived each other and then turned back to the screen with determination, only seven more to go.

This continued for a few more minutes with them having five notes, you could slice the tension in the room with a knife and Valkyrie noticed she was sweating with fear, only slightly though. Then they walked around a corner and he was there. Valkyrie had to lean in closer to see what it was.

It was a tall figure with its long arms by its side, a chalky white face and a black suit and tie. Tanith immediately gasped and jumped back from the screen but Valkyrie wasn't scared. Tanith was pressing the keyboard as fast as she could to run away. She succeeded and then tried to control her breathing, Valkyrie wanted to see him again.

They collected one more page and then Tanith sighed slightly.

"We have to go inside the building now, it where the last couple pages are." She slowly made the character walk down into the basement like scene. They saw the 7th note round the corner and collected it. When they turned around there was someone looking back at them.

Tanith started screaming and bashing the keyboard, Valkyrie jumped back so sharply that she fell off her chair and hit her head. Tanith almost burst into tears as the screen was filled with a flickering image of slender man's featureless face close up and almost screeching noises that filled the room as the game came up with text that read:

'TRY AGAIN YES/NO?"

As if it was planned, Skulduggery opened up the door suddenly without his hat on and his favourite black suit on. The girls started screaming again and jumped out the window shouting "SLENDY'S GONNA GET US! HELP!" They speed down the road back to Gordon's mansion to find a nice safe wardrobe to hide in, leaving Skulduggery to wonder why the Girls didn't want to join the game of cards downstairs...

_This is a true story; let's just leave it at that, silly Slendy got me at 7..._


	13. Detective Cain to the Rescue

Detective Cain to the Rescue

The silence was painful, possibly the strongest sorcerers in the worst, had been taken down in two minutes. The five sat there tied to chairs in the dark room with one door. Tanith was red in the face; her foot wouldn't stop shaking from the leftover adrenaline from the recent fight. Ghastly was sat just looking around trying to find something to take his mind of the humiliation. Fletcher was sat, trying to wriggle his eyebrows to stop his hair from flopping; it was his own personal torture. China was sat there, although she was embarrassed by what had happened she was mainly trying to get Tanith to stop twitching. Skulduggery said nothing; he was busy wondering where Valkyrie was. She had relied on him many times before to save her from these situations, now it was her turn.

When she woke up it was half eleven in the morning. This was a shock in itself as she never slept this late because she had Skulduggery call her and they would meet up. She wasn't sure whether to feel hurt or glad for the extra sleep, it was feeling good not being tired first thing. She checked her messages, nothing. She sighed and was slightly confused. She always was having conversations with Tanith and Fletcher about random stuff but now there was nothing. They must have just been oversleeping like her; maybe Tanith was 'busy' with Ghastly... She shuddered slightly at the thought.

She went downstairs in Gordon's mansion and made herself breakfast, finding entertainment in the cereal box. Once she finished she began ringing everyone. When she got no answer she started to panic, heck she had even tried China. She switched into Detective mode and set off finding everyone.

"Do you think Val knows we are missing yet?" Tanith asked as she tried to break the awkward silence.

"I expect she woke up with no messages from any of us, got a bit grumpy and then the penny dropped. In fact I would bet my hat she is looking for us now." Skulduggery replied cheerfully.

"Really?! Your precious Fedora?" Ghastly asked slightly embarrassed.

"Nonsense, I said 'would', I wouldn't dare risk losing her..." He trailed off in a daydream.

Just then the door opened and they all turned to see a tall figure at the door.

Valkyrie first went to Cemetery Road to look for Skulduggery, no answer. Then she tried Bespokes Tailors, nothing again. She even went to Fletchers little flat he rented so that Tanith and Valkyrie would stop calling him a hobo. The library was open as usual but China wasn't there, the guards would disclose where Miss Sorrows was and told her she was in a meeting of sorts.

Feeling depressed and alone she walked out of the building and almost giving up hope after spending hours and lots of money on taxis looking for them. Then she saw something in the distance. Parked in a darkened alley a few streets in the distance, was the Bentley.

She ran all the way over, glad that finally she had a clue of sorts to where everyone was. Tanith's bike was parked behind it. She looked through the window to see a book entitled 'Shape shifters and other nasty things...' She saw that the keys were still in the engine, confusion written on her face, where was Skulduggery?

Then she looked down and saw in the dirt on the floor, lots of boot marks from Tanith, and struggle marks all along the side of the car. There had been a fight here very recently. She realised they must have been ambushed as they had all fallen here; Valkyrie noticed that the Bentley wasn't locked. She suspected this was Skulduggery helping out before he was kidnapped. She sat into the driver's seat and flicked through the book to the page with the bookmark in. Hope flared through her and she sped away.

"So I expect you all know who I am, I know who you all are." The tall man towered over all the seated victims.

"Couldn't give us a hint could you?" Tanith mocked.

"WHAT? YOU DON'T KNOW WHO I AM?!" The mysterious man looked ready to explode.

They all looked at each other and then shrugged, failing slightly because of the restraints.

"You have underestimated me, and now shall pay." He loaded the gun and then aimed straight at China.

She looked over at Skulduggery "Age before beauty?"

"Enough talking, more killing." The man murmured. Tanith thought about insulting the cheesy line he said but was distracted when she saw writing appear on the walls.  
"HEY LOOK!" She shouted, getting everyone to watched as writing in red slowly appeared.

'SORRY I'M LATE! LOVE VAL!'

And before the man could even question what had happened, a dark figure jumped out from the roofing and kicked him in the face, knocking him out easily. She the set about undoing everyone's bonds.

Saving you just in time is really easy Skul." She grinned once they were free.

"Hey! You did it!" Skulduggery almost laughed but it was clear he was proud.

"Well I learnt from the best."

"That you did..."

"Who was he?"

"No idea, he just jumped out from behind some bins after we were doing some research on teleporter's to show Fletcher the things he should be doing, like training and not teleporting into girls changing rooms, when he leapt out with a stick and we all fell over and woke up here."

"Oh, should we care who he was?"

"Not really, did you get my clues?"

"You mean the book and leaving the Bentley unlocked? The book was very helpful, it told me that the most common place to hide would be somewhere dark and well hidden, the picture showed a warehouse so I began checking all these. But really I heard Fletcher moaning a mile away." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"What! My Bentley was unlocked! Is she alright?"

He rushed outside to make sure that nothing had happened. China just left quietly back to her library. Tanith and Ghastly rode behind the others and Valkyrie sat in her normal seat feeling rather smug that she had solved it all on her own, well mostly.


	14. The Sin of Jealousy Part 1

The sin of Jealousy

All of the Skul crew were at Gordon's house, except for Fletcher. Ghastly and Tanith were snuggling on the sofa and giggling between them, Skulduggery was reading the newspaper by the fire and Valkyrie was sat on the floor cross legged watching a western movie sat with Echo-Gordon. The two were talking about the plot of the movie and how silly the cowboy looked with that hat. Skulduggery had to join in the conversation saying only gentlemen were fedoras; all other hats are for simpletons. It was a fun argument and stirred up a banter shared between them.

Just then there was a small pop and they all turned to the door where a grinning Fletcher was, things were still slightly tense after Valkyrie and Fletchers break up however they had managed to stay friends and they often met up and talked.

"Everyone, I want you to meet Tabra Young... She is my new girlfriend!" He had a cheeky grin on his face and his eyes flickered around the room, absorbing all the startled looks until his eyes met Valkyrie's and she was sure it got even bigger. Skulduggery quickly flicked his facade on before the girl noticed.

As soon as the words left his mouth she felt cold, whether it was the fact he said 'new girlfriend' that made it personal or that maybe she still had feelings for him, it hurt. However she wasn't going to let him have the joy of seeing his ex-girlfriend jealous, Tanith could see the hurt in her eyes and was praying that she would keep her calm, she knew that she wouldn't be able to. Skulduggery looked across to Ghastly and they were both thinking the same thing, let's kill Fletcher for being so spiteful.

"Heya everyone, Fletcher says that you can all do magic and stuff! Isn't that cool!" She had a very think northern accent but was also high pitched and squeaky.

"What did you say Fletcher?" Skulduggery was trying to keep his calm and resist the urge to hit Fletcher for bringing this random girl in front of Valkyrie.

"Oh he just said that you guys can make fire and run up walls and jump really high! It's amazing isn't!" She giggled the hideous laugh again and then snuggled back into Fletchers arms. Valkyrie physically tensed and looked away afraid off bursting into tears. Everyone apart from the happy couple noticed this and Gordon gently touched her arm for comfort, and then remembered he was a ghost as his arm passed through. Valkyrie had to smile at his attempts; it was the thought that counts.

"Yeah, it sure is something. How long have you known Fletcher may I ask?" Skulduggery asked patiently. Fletcher lost his smug smile suddenly, Tanith raised an eyebrow.

"We only met around 20 minutes ago, can you believe how lucky I am, to meet the man of my dreams so suddenly."

The next few minutes happened so suddenly. Valkyrie had immediately let out the gasp she had been letting in and felt anger inside her, he had done this intentionally to make her jealous. She jumped up to kick his arse. Yet she was a second behind Skulduggery who had leapt upon Fletcher the second Valkyrie had gasped, letting the anger that had been boiling inside him flow out in solid punches to Fletchers face. Tanith grabbed Tabra and held her in a sleeper hold until she lost consciousness then left her in hall. Ghastly, Tanith, Gordon, Skulduggery and Valkyrie circled Fletcher, towering over him.

Skulduggery leaned in so close and so quickly that Valkyrie had thought he had head-butted him. "What gives you the right to come here, with some random, poor, girl you found on the streets with her tits out and try make Valkyrie jealous? Well listen to me boy, she isn't, and she pities you and will not stop me in teaching you a lesson." He pulled him up against the wall and kneed him in the crotch, and then he slapped him three times across his face. He threw his to Tanith who delivered several hard hits for her sister, Ghastly stepped in and did the same, but with a boxers force. Gordon wanted to join in but he was unable to so just stood his ground and was glad to be here to reassure his niece.

Ghastly threw Fletcher over to Valkyrie who simply bitch-slapped him across his face, making everyone flinch and her knuckles throb. She put all her feelings into it. She grabbed the scruff of his neck and pulled him through the door and through him outside; he staggered and barely managed to stand up. He had no expression on his face and just teleported away.

Skulduggery felt happy that he was able to do something he had wanted to for months, but sad for Valkyrie having to endure that. He gently hugged here and whispered 'be brave' into her ear and tilted his skull to the right, she knew this meant he was smiling. Ghastly put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. Gordon could only smile, but it was enough. Then she realised she was being dragged upstairs by Tanith for 'girl talk.'

"So what do with the girl?" Ghastly asked.

_I'm really enjoying writing these ;) I got my KOTW yesterday and just finished! Loving Derek Landy even more! Please read and review :)_


	15. The Sin of Jealousy Part 2

The Sin of Jealousy Part 2

Upstairs, the girls were talking about how much a douche Fletcher was, Valkyrie just nodded and agreed unsure whether to agree or disagree, her feelings were all over the place.

"So how are you going to get back at him?" Tanith asked with an evil grin on her face.

"Get back at him? No, I'm not snooping to his level. Besides I don't know any other boys around to do it with. And before you ask, you and I aren't trying..." She finished her sentence early as she saw Tanith putting on a pretend disappointed face.

"Fine, you were so brave when he was here. If that was me I would have killed him the moment he brought that slut in the room with that disgusting smile."

"Let's just forget about it, I have to do some more research on Necromancy tomorrow, I wanna watch a movie and then go to sleep."

"Cool, do you want me to give you a lift on my bike?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Skulduggery was going to take me, though you can come and bring Ghastly so you don't get bored!" Valkyrie's smile was so similar to Tanith's that she felt proud.

Downstairs the men were lifting the lifeless form of Tabra Young into the back of the Bentley where they would later dump at the sanctuary to brainwash or something, all Skulduggery cared about was what that 'twat of a rat' hedgehog boy had done to Valkyrie, although she was putting on a brave face Skulduggery knew his partner was hurting but didn't want to show her weakness. He understood because this was how he felt all the time. After the silence almost unbearable, Ghastly spoke up.

"What are you thinking about? Although I think I know the answer."

"I just- I just can't believe some sick thought in his head made him want to do that, Valkyrie has had a few tough months with long nights trying to get Tanith back, she gets her back and now her world is rocked yet again. I just wish I could have spent more time beating the crap out of Fletcher."

"Wow, that was quite an outburst! I think that Valkyrie will be alright, she is strong. Plus like you said she has Tanith."

For a few moments they were silent and finished pushing the girl inside the trunk. Once inside Skulduggery sat down as if to meditate, but Ghastly had a sudden realisation.

"You love her."

"...yes. And I know it's wrong but I can't help it, I want to know she is having a good time, feeling happy and most of all she is safe. The same way you feel about Tanith."

"I see, and I'm guessing that Valkyrie doesn't know?"

"No, and I probably won't tell her until I know she feels the same way or if I should stop acting like a hormonal teenager."

"Okay, let's get everything ready for tonight." Skulduggery was glad that the conversation was ready and set out to put 'Good Burger' on, they could all do with a good laugh after today.

The next day they all got ready and Valkyrie and Skulduggery climbed into the Bentley off to the sanctuary to dump the body. Skulduggery made up some story about how she was drunk and deranged and then knocked herself out, but they just smiled and told to forget about it. They made up a story about how she got drunk and fell into a bin knocking her unconscious, but not before wiping her memory of the last 24 hours. They then sped off to China's library with Tanith and Ghastly following after. Valkyrie secretly wished that she could be whizzing along on the bike but she did love the conversations she had with Skulduggery so didn't say anything.

When they arrived they all went to separate areas of the Library, Tanith the murder mystery fiction, Ghastly the brain teasing work of some famous writers that Valkyrie had never heard of and Skulduggery went off to read more about the man they were researching after their break from work.

Valkyrie found her book and nestled down into the area that she had declared hers, a few years ago she had slept here after falling asleep during researching. Tanith thought it had been funny to put a sign up next to her saying 'Do not disturb, Penalty is death...' and apparently some sorcerers had taken it seriously and never dared to go over there again.

She had gotten a few chapters in and was enchanted by what she was reading; she could be so much more powerful is she did this and so much better if she did this. All small things like twirling her fingers better and controlling the shadows made her stronger. She let out a small gasp when it came to the end of the small section and it said for more information check out "Sadye McMahan's book of wonder." She pulled herself up out of her comfy seat and headed into that section.

However just as she did, she walked straight into someone who was walking directly towards her at speed, knocking her over.


	16. The Sin of Jealousy Part 3

The Sin of Jealousy Part 3

He watched her; she was so pretty with her dark hair, smouldering eyes and her figure loving clothes. He had heard of her and how many times she had saved the world. He had to admit that he had a crush on her and here he was only a few metres away and he was just stood there, watching her like a shy child. Should he go and talk to her, would she like him or would the skeleton man come along and kill him, there were rumours that the skeleton man liked her and he didn't want to risk it.

He sat there for around 20 minutes full of self-doubt until he heard a quiet gasp; it was so soft and sweet and made his heart stop and blood run cold. He looked around and saw her getting up to get another book. Before he knew what was happening his feet were charging over to her.

She slowly got, picked her book up and made towards the next section completely oblivious to the young man walking towards her. The next thing she knew was that a young man had gently grabbed her and kissed her. What shocked her more was that she liked the taste and was kissing him back!?

'**Great one Declan! What happened to just talking to her, you're kissing her! Wait she is kissing back, oh she tastes great... Wait, is the skeleton looking, he is going to kill me." **Declan opened his eyes to see a surprised Valkyrie looking back, biting her lip with a small smile on her lips. He went to apologise for surprising her when he saw her eyes widen in shock. He followed her eyes and turned to see a grinning blonde lady with a muscled man on her arm, a still skeleton and a blonde boy with tears in his eyes. The boy looked at her for a second and then disappeared. **'Wait, did he just disappear? No all the teleporters have gone..."**

"He is the last teleporter, don't worry about him." A small voice said behind him, he must have looked confused.

"I-I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kiss you, it's just that I have heard about you but didn't know you were so pretty. I came over to talk to you and, well I guess I got over excited. Sorry for doing that, the skeleton man looks angry. I'm Declan, Declan Swift." He managed to say the whole thing in one breath and it took its toll as he went an impressive red. Instead of shouting at him, or telling him to get away like he dreaded, she gently touched his forearms and linked her fingers into his with a coy smile on her face.

He seemed nice, and not just because of the kiss but because he seemed to have raw feelings and not just care about himself. Something his last boyfriend failed at. Also she did have to admit he looked good as well. He had slightly tanned skin, shaggy black hair that was parted at the side and was styled slightly but had no gunk in it, it was all natural. He had a loose crimson hoody on, dark jeans and motorcycle boots on. And for months, she decided to let someone in.

"It's okay, don't worry about it. Why were you coming over anyway?"

"I wanted to come and talk to you, ask about the book you were reading and seeing as I have already embarrassed myself enough, ask you out on a date sometime?"

"Yes, I'd like that." She grabbed his hand and they went and sat down in Valkyrie's corner. "I'm Valkyrie Cain and I get the feeling you didn't really want to come and ask about the book I was ready considering it's about necromancers."

"I guess I just wanted an excuse, anyway you are practically famous among the magical world! I'm the one that needed to explain myself. I'm an elemental; I have just passed the surge a few days ago. I have just had my seventeenth birthday."

"Oh, happy late birthday then!" She replied with a smile.

The conversation continued with small talk and getting to know each other while Tanith kept on glancing over and winking every now and then. While Skulduggery looked on in anguish and beaming with jealousy, yet again glad that no-one could see his anger as he watched the young couple.


	17. Beach Trip

Beach Trip

Valkyrie couldn't believe her luck; they were finally going to the beach. Skulduggery had muttered about it for months and she finally pestered him enough to go. It was herself and Declan, Tanith and Ghastly and Skulduggery, Fletcher was still in the dog house and she had the feeling he would be for a long time...

She had woken up early and grabbed her pre-packed back and sat in the lounge of Gordon's mansion. Declan was going to come around 8am and she was slightly nervous about it, it was a strange feeling and one she never had with Fletcher. She shook the thought out of her head and tried to stop comparing past and present boyfriends.

Everyone came earlier than planned with giant grin on their faces. Declan saw Valkyrie and immediately pulled her into a hug, like Ghastly did to Tanith. Valkyrie felt bad for Skulduggery who was by himself although be busied him with loading bags into the Bentley.

"Hiya, you ready?" Declan asked with a gentle smile.  
"Yep, I barely slept last night so just poke me awake when we get there." Valkyrie winked as she climbed into her normal seat in the front of the Bentley, Declan sat behind her and they kept on whispering between the headrests. The journey took a couple hours yet no one complained.

"Are we there yet Skulduggery?"

"No Valkyrie, about another half an hour." Five minutes later.

"Are we there yet Skulduggery?" She sang in that sing-song voice again.

"No, as I said before its ages until we get there." He was getting slightly annoyed but he smile made all anger disappear.

Valkyrie got bored of annoying Skulduggery and decided to go to sleep, leaving Skulduggery to begin interrogating Declan. When she woke she saw a giant blanket of blue with a golden side surrounding the water along the coast for miles. They were no other people in sight. She leapt out the car and saw everyone one else unloading their things. She went to get her back but it wasn't there, she frowned as she felt herself being pulled backwards into strong arms. She turned and saw Declan standing with both their bags on his shoulder and his hand outstretched. She took it and they followed the others down the path to the beach.

When they got there they all dumped their bags and set up a little base, Valkyrie took off her top coat and short to reveal a dark purple Bikini. Tanith did the same although hers was a deep red. All the men stared in awe and the girls shared a laugh and grabbed their men and dragged them down to the water. They managed to take off their shirts and jeans to reveal beach shorts. Then finally allowed the immature side to take over as they played in the water. Skulduggery stood on the side, activated his facade and then sat down.

'**No, I shouldn't ruin their fun. I'll wait until they are all tired out from being children and then we can all go on a walk and maybe I can get my partner back. Oh who am I kidding, why does Declan get to play with Valkyrie and I'm stuck here being all moody-'**

His internal argument was interrupted by a giant bubble of sea water covering him and throwing him back. As soon as it had hit him he knew who had done it, his guess was confirmed when he saw a young girl with hands still armed at him and a bad poker face, trying not to laugh at the soggy skeleton. Everyone else however was in hysterics. The skeleton man immediately took off his suit to reveal board shorts of his own, along with his well kept body of the facade Valkyrie had to do her best to not look for too long like Tanith but Declan saw it and intervened and pulled her under the water and she cried out in shock. When she came up to the surface they laughed playfully and she slapped his childishly making them giggle.

However when she turned around she barely had time to notice Skulduggery also with his hands flared, she was thrown 50 metres high into the sky and then Skulduggery blasted water up cushioning her but also drenching her. She resurfaced with a scowl and war broke out.

The skull crew played for hours until they all got out and lay on their own towel. However they found that it was nicer to combine two and cuddle. Valkyrie was so relaxed that she fell asleep again only to be woken up by something cold on her nose. Her eyes flashed open to see a beaming Declan with a large ice cream. She sat up and enjoyed it slowly, everyone having a conversation about who won the water fight but Valkyrie didn't care, she was so happy being surrounded by friends and someone who loved her.

"Does anyone fancy going for a walk?" A sheepish Skulduggery asked, getting bored of being the only one alone. After a few awkward moments of silence Valkyrie spoke up.

"Yeah alright, we going around the coast?"

"That sounds like fun; shall we bring the bags or leave them here?" Declan asked

"I'd leave them, no one ever comes here."

They set off with Skulduggery leading and telling historical facts about landmarks that Ghastly had heard many times before. Tanith and Ghastly were holding hands and making jokes about how Skulduggery sounded like David Attenborough with all his facts. At the back were Declan and Valkyrie who were asking about each other like, what their parents were like, where they live and places they could go a for a first date. They concluded this didn't count as they had other people here that didn't want to see people kissing.

Valkyrie found that Declan was very much like her with the fact that he had to choose only one power and settled on being an elemental because of the risk that is being a Necromancer. They didn't stop until they walked straight into the backs of Ghastly who grunted. They suddenly realised it was getting dark and they were back at their little fort again. Valkyrie was sad to leave the beach but had to admit she was exhausted and literally collapsed into the Bentley and fell asleep yet again facing the gap in the headrest, making Declan chuckle and Skulduggery fill even more with envy.

_This is fun, I don't know if you guys like these but I am! :p I will continue to post 1-2 every day, long live Declkyrie, Valduggery and Ghanith!_


	18. The Motorbike Lesson

The Motorbike Lesson

_Sorry it's slightly later but I was at the Paralympics and didn't get back till way late._

Valkyrie watched Tanith rev the engine of her bike and skid stylishly making the pebbles spread onto her boots, something clicked in her brain and she remembered that she wanted to learn how to ride. Skulduggery had laughed when she asked for car driving lessons. Apparently her 12 year old standard wasn't good enough for him...

"Hey Tanith, can you teach me how to ride please?" She asked with puppy dog eyes.

"I thought Skulduggery made it clear that you're not allowed to drive anything, ever again."

"But that was years ago, why won't he get over it already. Anyway I want to learn to drive a motorbike, it would mean I could stop asking for lifts from you both?"

"Okay fine, I'll go over the basics; start the engine with said key." She held up a key.

"You don't say!" Valkyrie responded with an impressive amount of sarcasm.

"You want to learn don't you; well really all it takes is loads of practice and thinking about the angle of the tires against the road so you don't crash. Confidence is all handy." She plopped the spare helmet onto her head and they sped off.

The two girls came back three hours later sore and limping. They threw their helmets onto the sofa and Skulduggery came rushing over.

"What happened, why are you limping?!"

"Urm, Valkyrie had a little accident and somehow crashed the bike into an ice cream van..."

"Is this true Valkyrie?"

However when he turned back to her he saw she had passed out. He held her bridal style and ran to the Bentley to get her fixed by Kenspeckle. Again.


	19. Showing Valkyrie Alcohol Part 1

Showing Valkyrie Alcohol Part 1

The annual Sanctuary ball had just finished, yet the Skul crew were still eager to party. Fletcher had to make a public apology in front of hundreds of sorcerers to apologize for his behaviour the other day. Both Tanith and Valkyrie had taken pictures of his red face and made them their phone backgrounds.

"I don't want to go home yet, it's only ten o'clock." Valkyrie moaned as they all made their way to the car park. Everyone mumbled in agreement.

"Do you want to come back to Gordon's; we could have our own party?" Valkyrie almost screeched as she suddenly filled with excitement.

"Yeah! Can we pick up some stuff on the way?" Tanith asked sneakily.

"Sure, let's go." They all hurried into their separate cars and bikes apart from Fletcher who just teleported somewhere.

Once at Gordon's house she went upstairs and changed out her classy ball gown into a monkey onesie and scrambled down the stairs with loads of others throwing them out randomly. Tanith was a bunny, Ghastly had a baby grow, Fletcher had a Scooby Doo onesie leaving Skulduggery with the Santa Claus onesie. He looked startling like Jack Skellington. They all laughed at each other while taking pictures of Skulduggery and sending them to Ravel, who was sat in his office chuckling.

"Right!" Tanith announced clapping her hands like she was talking to pre-schoolers "The first game we are playing is spin the bottle, everyone know how to play, great let's start-" She was cut off by Valkyrie raising her hand.

"I know that Declan is on a case for the English Sanctuary but I don't know if I feel comfortable doing this isn't it, like, cheating?"

"This version is different, the person who goes before chooses what happen."

"Still..."

"Okay, I know what you need." She hopped up and into the kitchen, she returned with both arms carrying at least 20 cans of beer. "We started when you were getting the onesies, have a couple and let the game begin.

Valkyrie turned to Skulduggery who was wearing his facade, expecting him to say no but then again she was 18 now and apparently he had already had a few. She popped the ring, hearing the familiar hiss like the energy drink Tanith had once given her. She tipped her head back and let the flavour pour onto her tongue. She had expected it to be bitter but instead it was almost sweet and made her head fell light and fingers feel tingly, she had another sip, then another until it was empty. Already she felt more relaxed. Her mother always told her ladies drink small cherries and men drink beers and pints.

"OKAY THEN! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!" A giggly Valkyrie cried out.

Tanith spun first and it landed on Ghastly, she kissed him on the lips, Ghastly spun next who landed on Skulduggery, then exchanged a manly hug courtesy of Tanith. Skulduggery spun next and it landed on Fletcher who looked scared for his life, Skulduggery pulled him into bone crushing hug as Ghastly laughed at Fletcher going red. Fletcher spun onto Valkyrie who had to kiss on the cheek as Skulduggery snickered but it was no biggie.

This was until Valkyrie spun onto Tanith; they both turned to Fletcher who sat there with a smile like it was Christmas morning and cried "wrestle!" Everyone turned to him in shock, but the girls got on with it and did what they did every day in training but felt awkward with Fletcher giggling every now and then. Tanith won after getting Valkyrie into a painful headlock.

The game continued with Valkyrie kissing Skulduggery on the cheek, many times. Ghastly and Fletcher fighting each other topless (Tanith and Valkyrie high-fived) and Valkyrie and Tanith making out as all the men stared in awe.


	20. Showing Valkyrie Alcohol Part 2

Showing Valkyrie Alcohol Part 2

After about an hour they began to get bored and looked for more stuff to do. Ghastly found an old Twister game which Skulduggery leapt at saying it was the best game in the world but everyone complained saying it was unfair as Skulduggery couldn't get tired.

Instead Valkyrie set up just Dance 2 while Ghastly made up some more and stronger drinks. Valkyrie found that she was really good at Just Dance and got all the moves perfect while everyone else couldn't figure out how the game worked, saying how mortal magic was stupid anyway.

After Skulduggery threatened to throw it out the window because it didn't like his thrusts, Valkyrie quickly turned it off.

"Hey, hey I have a GREAT idea..." Skulduggery slurred, shouting the word 'great'.

"W-what?" Valkyrie was really tired.

"We should go and see China!" Valkyrie leant on the Bentley to stop herself from swaying.

"But you're waaaay too drunk to drive."

"No I'm not, let's go." He staggered over to Valkyrie and pushed her into the passenger seat and sped off. Valkyrie wondered how they didn't crash but she guessed that Skulduggery's Spider senses were so good they even worked when intoxicated.

They pulled up outside China Sorrow's Library and they struggled to even open the door outside, finally they made it in and broke down laughing at a random mages hat. It was green and pointed.

"AHAHAHAH! LOOK AT THE ELF!" Valkyrie roared.

"IT'S BARELY SEPTEMBER SANTAS LITTLE HELPER." Skulduggery bellowed making heads turn in disgust at the two obviously drunk sorcerers who were setting fire to everything. China heard something smash from inside her apartment and came into the library to find people hurrying off in a huff and sulking. China wondered what had happened when she say Valkyrie and Skulduggery crouched over the mage with the green hat, poking him in the belly and chortling like school girls.

She rushed over, grabbed them by the ears and threw them out the steps.

"You may enter again once sober, and then you owe an apology to the sorcerers attacked." And with that she swept away leaving the two laughing even more as they drove back to the mansion. When they parked up they say that they had got Just dance 2 set up again and had concentration faces back on. The best they got between then was a good; Valkyrie grabbed the controller and immediately got Perfect's.

Tanith had found a beer bong somewhere and they began using that until Valkyrie felt light headed and felt she was falling but was too tired to get back up. She passed out.

When she woke up, she was handcuffed to the Bentley's door handle with Skulduggery. She could make out Tanith and Ghastly laying in the grass a few metres away and she absolutely no idea where Fletcher was but she didn't really care to be honest. She was more interested that she had drunk so much and felt so awful now.

It was great though, she chuckled to herself as the others croaked back into the land of the living.


	21. Maturity

Maturity

"You know, I think that Valkyrie has really grown up and matured now. She no longer asks questions as she answers them all by herself and stopped giggling altogether. It's a good thing to as she will be having the surge soon." Skulduggery announced as he read the afternoon paper. They were all say in Gordon's mansion with echo-Gordon say as well.

"Yeah it's cool, now Valkyrie and I can talk about other stuff." She winked at Ghastly who was sure whether to be aroused or shocked and ended up with both making Tanith smile.

"Such a fine and clever intellectual my niece has begun." Echo-Gordon agreed.

It was silent for a few moments until the quiet sound of the ice cream van passed by; they all ignored it until a millisecond later the thundering sound of boots filled the house as Valkyrie literally flew down the stairs, grabbed Tanith's purse. She picked up a few coins and sprinted out the door.

Everyone jumped up and followed outside thinking she was being chased or out to catch someone until they saw Valkyrie casing down the ice-cream van, banging on the side of it until it stopped. She handed over the coins and then got handed a giant flake with extra chocolate sauce. She skipped back into the house, giggling slightly and hopped back upstairs for a few more hours.

They all shook their heads in disbelief and Skulduggery whispered "Nothing changes from 7 years ago when I met her..."

_Only a small one, yet it's based on a true story :3 Hope you like it!_


	22. Valkyrie and Declan's First Date

Valkyrie and Declan's date

Declan was coming to Gordon's mansion for his and Valkyrie's first date, so far they had just sat together and talked but as they agreed at the beach they were having a first date. Declan made his point very clear that he was organising everything, Valkyrie didn't mind too much and just got ready upstairs with Tanith.

"So do you know where you are going?" Tanith asked as she did Valkyrie's hair, pinning some bits back and straightening other bits.

"No, he said he would be here for 8 and we were seeing a movie."

Tanith made a dirty snigger and Valkyrie slapped her arm but grinned as well. She was looking forward to this date. However her excited anticipation to her date wasn't shared by everyone downstairs. Skulduggery was sat in an eerie melancholic state, across from a sulking Fletcher who had no idea their date was today but wanted to play on his x-box he had set up upstairs and had to wait for the girls to finish. In the meantime he set about staring at Skulduggery, just for the hell of it and was beginning to get bored when nothing happened. Even a week after his stunt, everyone was giving him the silent treatment and Fletcher was worried every time Ghastly left the room to get tea, leaving him alone with Skulduggery.

Skulduggery was filled with different emotions, jealous of Declan for being able to share the fun evening with Valkyrie, angry at Fletcher for all the pain he caused them all and why he wasn't allowed to hit the child gurning at him and excited for the big case sent to him that morning. They had all been invited to go to England for a case through Tanith yet he decided to let Declan and Valkyrie have their own fun and tell her tomorrow. Three hours is enough time for a 19 year old girl to pack, right? He hoped Valkyrie wouldn't be annoyed at the late noticed. His thoughts were interrupted by three loud knocks on the front door.

Ghastly opened it to see Declan standing with dark red roses and a large box of chocolates. He was wearing black skinny jeans, boots, a dark brown jacket with a tight white top on underneath showing his Pecs and abs. Ghastly stepped to the side with a smile on his face while Skulduggery begrudgingly got up and stepped over to shake hands with him. He decided to become the father figure of Valkyrie. Everyone ignored Fletchers sulking and sat down.

"So where are you taking her tonight on your date?"

"I'm planning on taking her to see a new movie and then to an Indian cuisine called the 'Shapla' in town."

"What the movie then?"

"It's an American comedy called 'Ted'. It's about a bear that can talk and does funny stuff with his childhood friend, it looked good so I brought the tickets." He pulled out a fancy black leather wallet with his initials on and revealed the two tickets tucked inside. As he did so he saw a condom he had stashed in here and did his best to cover it up without being suspicious. He quickly put his wallet away and prayed Skulduggery hadn't noticed. Just in time Valkyrie walked down the stairs, all four men walked into the hallway as Tanith walked down first and into Ghastly's arms with a proud grin on her face.

Valkyrie wore a respectably cut purple three-quarter length top with black skinny jeans and boots, she had a small clutch bag and her hairs was perfection. Fletcher turned red and teleported. Ghastly hugged Tanith closer and smiled at Valkyrie, Tanith did the same but with Ghastly. Both Skulduggery's and Declan's chins dropped in synch. Declan reached out to grab her arm and together they walked out into Declan's parked Ford. Leaving Skulduggery to sit alone by the window.

They got to the cinema and waited patiently with small talk. Once they finally got in they bought a massive bucket of popcorn and drinks. The movie was funny and made everyone in the cinema laugh, Declan was nervous while Valkyrie was acting like she was at home. Once it was over they walked back to the car, Declan's confidence grew more being Valkyrie and her loud personality. They went into the Indian cuisine and got a giant platter of stuff they didn't know and played their own small game of spin the bottle of who would eat what with a small WKD bottle from Valkyrie's clutch bag (an idea from Tanith.) They left the shop after laughing loudly and getting weird looks but they didn't care and just strut out after finishing their meal. Declan had purposely parked the car far away in order to walk through the park and talk.

It was around 11pm and the moon was high and bright. The moon reflected off Skulduggery's skull as he realised how quiet the house was without Valkyrie, in a horrible way. It just made him even more jealous and wanted to hold her more. He couldn't deny he was worried that they weren't home in time as planned. But he trusted Valkyrie and knew there was a reason why she wasn't home so just sat still waiting with Ghastly and Tanith watched some chick flick.

The park at night was quiet, only the bright stars and little animals for company. They sat on a bench and talked.

"How is the date going so far?" Declan asked trying not to sound nervous.

"It's going great! The movie was amazing and that food was incredible. The look on that posh couple when you had to eat the spicy balls has defiantly been the highlight of the evening though!" Valkyrie giggled back.

"Well maybe I can change that..." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek, Valkyrie jumped in shock and then realised she was blushing. Fletcher would be trying to suck her face off already; she liked the more civilised form of kissing. He stood up grinning like an idiot with rosy red cheeks, glad he had taken the risk of kissing her as they walked back to his car.

Skulduggery saw them pull up outside and leapt up out of his seat and flashed to the door making Tanith and Ghastly join him. He was about to open the door when he saw them out of the window. Declan was holding her hand and kissed it, she responded with a small kiss on the lips. They pulled apart and Valkyrie walked to the door and started fiddling in her bag for keys when Skulduggery opened the door, Valkyrie looked up shocked and then smiled and walked in, hugged Skulduggery and then was dragged upstairs again by Tanith who had shrieked something that sounded like "DETAILS! NOW!" Skulduggery felt her warmth flow through him from the hug and sat down next to Ghastly to watch the news.

Tanith opened the door to the spare room to see a sleeping Fletcher with his headset on, he had fallen asleep playing COD, again. Laughing and taking pictures the girls went into the room Tanith and Ghastly shared to talk about the date.


	23. The Paralympics

The Paralympics

The Skul Crew decided to watch the Paralympics in one of the waiting rooms at the Sanctuary. They had all been supporting Great Britain for Tanith and Fletcher's sake, this was until the men's 1500m final came on and Michael McKillop came onto the screen, representing Ireland. Skulduggery, Ghastly and Valkyrie all shot up and started cheering like mad things. They sat on another sofa and continued chanting his name.

Then Dean Miller appeared and the crowd on the T.V started screaming, as did Tanith and Fletcher who started dancing together. The receptionist looked up scared and called for Ravel to come and help her.

The race started and all were close until the halfway mark when Michael McKillop started to take the lead. Ghastly threw his hands in the air and Skulduggery and Ghastly started dancing a jig as Fletcher and Tanith started shouting at the British athlete to run faster. Tanith started insulting his mother.

This continued until in the final lap when the Irish athlete was having a glory lap. He crossed the line and Valkyrie, Skulduggery and Ghastly had a group hug and started singing an old Irish song. Fletcher and Tanith started sulking and kicking anything near them. Valkyrie ran out of the room and returned a few seconds later with green, white and orange hats for the three and party poppers. She also had a large pack of whisky and varieties of alcohol. They were going to celebrate the Irish way and all three of them applauded loudly as cheered as he got his gold medal. Dean Miller had gotten 7th.

Eskrine Ravel walked in and saw two sulking blondes and three merry mages. Looked at the T.V, then the whisky and joined in the celebration. Tanith eventually got bored and joined in while Fletcher teleported off to the Olympic village...

_Sorry it's really short, I'm up at four in the morning to go see the Paralympics so don't have much time, more to follow _


	24. Back To School

Back To School.

There had been no new cases for a few weeks and the English mages were still deciding whether or not they actually needed Skulduggery and Valkyrie, this made him annoyed as they sat around not doing anything, Valkyrie had been enjoying the time with Tanith and Declan. This was until she had been made to go back to school.

"Are you going to stop sulking and do up your tie, pull your skirt down slightly, I can see too much leg." He lied the last bit "Why is your top button undone? Do you want to be sent home from school? Don't answer that."

"Why do I have to go? The English could phone any moment and I will be stuck in school, I don't need an education because I am going to be a proper detective once I'm older." Valkyrie grumbled as the Bentley pulled up outside the school.

"Because, Valkyrie, in your last report you incorrectly used the terms of your and you're and managed to make my brain hurt at the countless grammar errors. If anything happens, I'll try to text you and then show this note and meet me here"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I still don't want to-"

"Just go and learn child." She was cut off as she was pushed out the car and trudged into her tutor room. She could hear the familiar purr of the Bentley slowly disappear and she cursed his name.

She sat in her seat at the back of the room and stayed silent, only answering her name and texting Tanith slyly with her phone under the table. Tanith, who was finding the whole situation hilarious, was packing her stuff ready in case they were needed, as were Ghastly and Declan. Fletcher had asked but Skulduggery didn't want him. Apparently England was only slightly less miserable and they were texting about what to bring when suddenly the bell went off for her first lesson. P.E.

They were doing running outside, Valkyrie knew she could run laps around everyone else but decided to jog and still she was in the front of the pack, leading everyone else. It made her feel good about herself and how much an impact her training with Tanith and Skulduggery had been. She barely noticed the hour pass by as she mainly jogged and sped walked.

The next lesson was maths, a chance for a nap she thought as she sat in the dark corner of the room. Her bliss was cut short as the teacher then made them sit in groups and have a quiz about everything they had learnt from last year. She had no idea and shrugged her way through the class.

At break she tried Tanith and Skulduggery to get her out of school, but no-one picked up so instead she went to the cafeteria and brought a brownie.

Next was I.C.T and she just skyped Declan who also was finding it funny seeing her sat in the classroom in her uniform instead of fighting grown men in her black outfit. He took her requests for the stuff she had to pack, using the advice from Tanith. She thanked him and then slowly made her way to the fourth lesson before lunch, English. She suddenly thought of Skulduggery and how he hadn't answered her earlier. She checked her phone, nothing.

For once, the enjoyed the lesson and took down notes and stored the information. She raised her hand to asked about how to use your and you're correctly. A few nerdy chuckles came from the boffins at the back but a few of the popular kids agreed that they weren't sure. The teacher was shocked and started explaining.

She sat and started piecing the facts together and felt rather smart at the end and looked forward to telling Skulduggery what she had learnt at school. God she felt 4 again. As she finished taking notes she looked out the window to see a skeleton dancing in a tree, desperately trying to get her attention. She gawped in awe and then fumbled in her pockets for the note. Panic rushed through her as she couldn't find it until she found it slightly stained with chocolate brownie stains. Embarrassed as the teacher questioned her, she fled the school and climbed into the Bentley.

"What the hell Skulduggery! You were in a tree dancing! Anyone could have seen you!" Valkyrie shouted.

"Nonsense, you were the only one looking and I ran here as soon as you had looked, I'm far too clever to get seen dancing in a tree." Skulduggery responded as he started the engine.

"So why didn't you just text me like the plan, this is one the few times we have a reasonable plan."

"Let's just say there was technical difficulties..."

"What does that mean?"

"We shall not speak of it. The English sanctuary phoned, one of their high mages was found dead and they realised how amazing we are. We are going on Gordon's private Jet, Tanith, Ghastly and Declan are meeting us at the airport. He has your stuff."

"Oh." Was all Valkyrie could be bothered to manage as she promptly fell asleep in the car. When she woke up they were entering the strip next to where the jet was. She could make out three familiar figures in the distance.

"I learnt how to do that your and you're stuff by the way." Valkyrie mumbled as she stretched from her nap.

"Excellent." He mumbled back.

They got out and slowly made their way over to the others, when they were a few metres away from each other Tanith schreeched.

"OH MY GOD VAL! DID YOU KNOW SKULDUGGERY GOT SO ANGRY AT NOT BEING ABLE TO USE THE TOUCHSCREEN HE SNAPPED IT IN TWO AND THROW IT INTO A RIVER"

Valkyrie burst out laughing as Skulduggery growled.

_I forgot to write yesterday so am starting off a story here... _


	25. This is England Part 1

This is England- Part 1

The jet was alright, Valkyrie thought as they sat on the short flight from Dublin to Heathrow. It was too posh for her; she reminded herself to tell Gordon how fancy his jet was and that it should be changed to have a hot tub. There were pieces of art spread stylishly around to lounge. Even the toilet had some abstract artwork that looked like it had been made from something inside the toilet. Valkyrie felt out of her comfort zone while everyone else appeared completely relaxed as they had been on the jet many times before, Valkyrie felt it rather rude she had never been on her uncle's jet and they had.

Once the plane had finally arrived, the girls walked out talking about ways the jet could be improved while the men followed behind carrying all the bags. They walked up to the arrivals section with the 'mortals' and saw a man dressed fully in grey holding a large sign with all their five names on. They approached and Skulduggery switched the stiff he was holding in one hand to the other to shake the English respondents hand.

"Hello there, we are from-"His sentence was cut short by the grey man turning away and walking to the nearby parked car. Tanith laughed and Valkyrie couldn't believe someone had done that to the great skeleton detective. The drive was silent and awkward, with only Tanith and Skulduggery making faces at Valkyrie.

_Wow I haven't been on here for a while, school. Anyway this is the start of a story. Sorry for it being rather small but it's like a small introduction for someone with loads of coursework..._


	26. This is England Part 2

This is England- Part 2

The journey had gotten so boring that Valkyrie had resorted to texting Tanith.

"Heya Tan!:)"

"Hey Val!:D You ready for my amazing tour of London?!"

"Hell yeah! Once this creepy man will let us talk. I don't like him. U know him?"

"No, yet I ain't been here in like a year so the sanctuary is probably different and still hate you Irish but at least I can take you around London."

"Cool, how are you and Ghastly? :3"

"Now now young one, I shouldn't wreck your young and simple mind with our secrets, what about you and Declan? :)"

"Ew? Yeah we are great! He said that he knows a great chippy around the eye thing."

"The London Eye?"

"Oh yeah that. :)"

"Nice one Val, we are here by the way!"

Valkyrie looked up from her phone and saw an old abandoned warehouse with a no-entry sign displayed. In Valkyrie's opinion, it looked like a piece of crap and her face must have yet again resembled her thoughts as everyone else started laughing and as she turned she saw they were laughing at her. She growled.

Together they got out with their own bags and started walking up to the door of the warehouse, the grey man opened it and once inside, Valkyrie realised they were walking down stairs in darkness, the only light was small candles on the walls every ten metres. She was glad she wasn't alone as for some reason it reminded her of the time she had gotten stuck in the tunnel she shuddered and Declan grabbed her hand and she thought she saw him smile but it was hard to tell in the dark. Skulduggery wished he could have been able to do that if Declan was around.

Eventually the darkness vanished and they were standing in an enormous centre of an artistic building. There were many different doors that were guarded by cleavers. Hundreds of mages were rushing in and out of each other's way to get to a different door. Valkyrie presumed they were either loads of business rooms or teleportation devices of some type. Then a loud voice boomed out making everyone standstill and search for the source.

"Mr Pleasant. I see you have arrived safely." A little old lady dressed also in grey with ancient anger evident in her eyes walked slowly down the stairs from the balcony above where she had been overlooking.

"Anderson Great. It's been a while since you have been in power. What happened to the last person who was running England."

"You shall address me a high made Great, no sarcasm when you announce me though."

"Oh, ok." Skulduggery mumbled back, upset that the English had already cut him down twice he had been in country.

"I presume you have been informed of our situation and the reason you have been called in is because all our detectives have been killed halfway through the case, with your record of solving cases just in time this should be a breeze. Especially with all your friends here." She began rolling her eyes over each of them and stopped suddenly. "Good lord! Tanith Low what are you doing with them, we all thought you were missing but instead you have been hiding in Ireland."

"Sorry about that, I guess I lost track of time." Tanith muttered as she held Ghastly's hand sheepishly. Valkyrie thought she resembled a child being told off for playing outside for too long, she reminded herself to tell her that later. Anderson Great heard Valkyrie's half chuckle at Tanith being told off and then stepped closer to her.

"Cain, isn't it. Valkyrie Cain. I've heard lots about you. How you only joined our world a few years ago and are already in the top ten most powerful mages in the world. How you slayed gods with ease and how you were the death bringer. So much in so little time, rather impressive." Valkyrie decided it better to not answer for fear of pissing of the English before they even started so just nodded with a half smile. Then Valkyrie wasn't sure whether she sneered or smiled.

"WOW! HEY EVERYONE, LOOK THE IRISH ARE HERE!" A voice echoed round making everyone turned back up to the balcony to see an ecstatic man running down the stairs, also dressed in grey but very messy and apparently buzzing with energy. He looked like a excited Labrador chasing a stick as he bounded up to them.

"Oh God."Anderson Great muttered in horror as she saw him.


	27. This is England Part 3

This is England Part 3

"HELLO! MY NAME IS HERNAN BRIGHT! YOU'RE IRISH AREN'T YOU?!" The dark haired dimwit half giggled, half screamed making Alexander great sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose.

"Everyone, this is Hernan Bright. He is our nurse in training and I'm sure he has to go back to his tutoring." She urged.

"Nope, they told me to go for a long walk." He chimed back, and then he saw Valkyrie who was giving him a cautious look. "Hey there, my name's Hernan, what's yours gorgeous?" He winked at her making everyone force away a laugh, except for Declan who stepped in front of her defensively while Valkyrie went her normal embarrassed shade of red.

"She is taken." Declan uttered darkly making even Valkyrie slightly scared, yet Hernan wasn't quite as bright as his name would suggest. Valkyrie found the irony in his name amusing.

"By who!" Hernan shouted back in sadness.

"Me." Declan's hand tightened around Valkyrie's, while Hernan wandered off muttering something about how she is missing out.

"Enough of this nonsense, come and we shall discuss your mission properly." Alexander announced making all the other mages continue on their normal route and they minded their own business. The group of them walked into a large room with a large table with at least 100 hundred seats. 3 cleavers came over and they handed over their bags.

"So far, three of our top detectives have been found slashed to ribbons while trying to solve this case that is a weeks ago, 5 mages were killed mysteriously in their homes. We looked into them Miss Low and we found that you seemed to have a connection to them all." Alexander great handed over a file with five pictures of mages, Tanith gasped and then sighed.

"Yeah I knew them, we used to train together yet I haven't talked to them for good ten or so years."

"We think this has something to do with whoever is the murderer; do you know anyone that has a grudge against you?"

"Yes, Billy-Ray Sanguine." When Tanith said this, everyone looked down and tensed, especially Ghastly who held Tanith's hand harder, like Declan and Valkyrie earlier.

"It seems by all your reactions, this is the man we should be looking for. Skulduggery now you have your first lead, use it and we expect this all to be sorted out by next week. Good day." She nodded and walked out leaving Skulduggery to lead them out to the shipped in Bentley. Once inside, he turned to the three sat in the back with Valkyrie at his side.

"So where do we start then? Do we go to the scene of the crime or let Sanguine come to us?"

"I think we should go to the scene of the crime to make sure we actually have the right person and to look all official and stuff in front of the English then we set up a plan were we can capture Sanguine and beat him up again. Then we can go and explore London." Valkyrie murmured quietly then giggled at the end. Everyone else in the car nodded as did Skulduggery.

"I see you have got this all figured out, you must have a very good teacher..."

"The best." She gave Skulduggery the smile she saved for Declan, and she wasn't sure why...

All she knew was that she was sure he was smiling, but really Skulduggery was in euphoria.

_Silly coursework, oh well I will try to get on here a few times a week yet I would like to get some GCSE's some time.._


	28. This is England Part 4

This is England Part Four

They drove off to where the most recent murder had taken place, Tanith was giving instructions and anecdotes about various streets and all the different baddies she had beaten up but Valkyrie was sure that Skulduggery knew where he was going. She looked out the window and was amazed at the amount of tourists taking pictures of things like lampposts and buses. She wondered why people bothered with such small things until she realised she would be doing that in a couple days and sunk back into the chair and allowed sleep to take over her.

"Do we really have to investigate with the snobby British breathing down our necks, sorry Tanith." Skulduggery's raised voice woke her up and she stretched making baby dinosaur noises which made Tanith giggle. Skulduggery parked and together they walked up to the taped off building.

"Detective Pleasant, Detective Cain, so glad for you to arrive. I hope your journey was satisfactory?" The man said in a monotonous voice.

"Yes it was fine but-"

"Come inside and have a look." Skulduggery sighed as yet again he was cut off. Valkyrie, Declan, Ghastly and Tanith all chuckled as they stepped through. However their laughter stopped abruptly as they saw the scene in front of them.

There was a shredded torso on the coffee table, drowning in the stale blood pool. A couple limbs were across the room with ligaments visible, the other limbs were the other side of the room. After a couple of moments Valkyrie saw a mangled face with most of the neck still attached which had rolled under the sofa. Everything was messy and rushed. Valkyrie stepped forward and looked behind a sofa where the body of a young woman lay, with the same injuries. When she had first gone to these murder investigations, seeing people dead made her feel sick but now she just felt sorry for them. She wondered if the change of heart about seeing dead people was because of Darquesse or because of being around Skulduggery. She turned to him and nodded, they all knew who had done this and started wondering where he was.

Once back in the car, they sat in silence as they went to the booked hotel and settled in. Declan and Valkyrie were sharing, Tanith and Ghastly were sharing and Skulduggery insisted that he was fine on his own but secretly Valkyrie knew he wasn't, and honestly she wanted to be with him as well but walked with Declan and they unpacked. It was around half ten and they were all exhausted. They sat up talking for a bit and Valkyrie filled Declan in about Sanguine, then they went to bed.

They woke up around half nine and the four went downstairs for breakfast after they were unable to find Skulduggery in his room. They had a hearty full-English when Valkyrie got a grammatically incorrect text message they managed to translate as 'get upstairs now.' "Skulduggery still can't use mobiles." The girls laughed again.

"While you lot slept, I have tracked Sanguine down, he is around Dover street, let's go." Skulduggery had a clean suit on and was carrying a briefcase.

Before Valkyrie could make a witty remark about how early it was she was being pushed out the door.

Yet again they were navigating their way around London and this time Valkyrie had her camera and was leaning with only her bottom in the car as she saw all the famous Landmarks and all things that looked picture worthy.

They pulled up outside yet another shifty warehouse and stepped through the broken down doors, everything was silent except Declan and Valkyrie's footsteps, everyone was much more stealthy but it didn't matter as they saw a figure standing in the darkness. Suddenly there were more behind him.

"Howdy there. I sure 'ave missed you blondie." The all too familiar southern drawl echoed, making everyone tense and Tanith gasp.


	29. This is England part 5

This is England- part five

"So? Ya miss me?" Sanguine asked again with a cocky amount of arrogance.

"Not really, although we would like to have some more fun beating the crap out of you." Skulduggery responded walking forwards getting handcuffs ready.

"Sorry to disappoint but that ain't 'appening. Have you met my friends?" He said while stepping back slightly as Skulduggery came closer. Everyone turned to the shadows waiting for someone to jump out. Everyone prepared themselves to fight; Tanith unsheathed her sword and started taking a few practice swings to warm up and try to intimidate whoever the figures were. Ghastly took off his coat and threw it in the corner, cracking his knuckles. Skulduggery got out his gun and continued scaring Skulduggery while Declan and Valkyrie simply looked at each other and clicked their fingers. Skulduggery sighed.

"Really Valkyrie, is that the best you can do? We are meant to be making them intimidated and you just click your fingers, couldn't you have done something like make shadows take away all light from the room and tendrils of darkness crawl around, I'm disappointed, really." Skulduggery kept so still that Valkyrie thought he was being serious and she went red and looked at her boots.

"Just add some pizzazz, you know maybe some hip thrusting or something?" He had his usual charm again and she knew he was grinning, she felt at ease again. Chuckling, they turned back to the baddies who had suddenly gotten closer.

"Whoa! They should put a bell on you or something!" Valkyrie shouted in surprise making Tanith giggle and lose focus, she cursed Valkyrie's name playfully. They were being unprofessional because they were a small threat and Sanguine knew it. He stepped forward, blade in hand.

"This is ma army. They don't need no names or nothin', all they need to do is follow my orders. NOW FIGHT!" Sanguine roared and immediately they all pounced forward. One of the figures dressed completely in black to each of them. They all began attacking them. The 'things' started by clawing like mad things but then began to get tired. The Skul crew slashed, shot, punched and set fire to the unknown people. Making light work of them they all turned back to Sanguine who stood there looking sheepish.

"Oh hell." He murmured as Tanith walked towards him with a disturbing smile on her face.

Suddenly Fletcher appeared with a huge smile on his face, genuine, as he saw everyone. They all stopped to look at the sudden arrival.

"What are you doing here Fletcher?" Valkyrie asked, confused.

Sanguine used this distraction to reach forward and grab Valkyrie's hand and sink into the ground. She let out a cry of annoyance and took a deep breath, she knew how long they could be down there while Sanguine started panting and grimacing against the pain that had never been healed. Skulduggery dove forward and was centre metres away from her hand when she disappeared. He lay there silently. Declan had rushed to Valkyrie but also had been too slow. He too was silent.

"AHH DAMMIT!" Tanith shouted and put her sword away, annoyed that not only had she missed a chance of getting Sanguine but also that her sister was missing again. She saw Fletcher out of the corner of her eye, he looked confused. Tanith thought about giving him a piece of her mind but decided to let Skulduggery do it. She just held Ghastly's hand and they gave each other a look.

Declan pulled out his phone and immediately rang Valkyrie, it started dialling but was never answered. He was starting to panic but did his best to not show it too much. He just looked at Skulduggery, waiting for him to get up.

Half a minute later Skulduggery did. He flashed up, dusted himself and started walking towards the exit.

"Sanguine is obviously behind it, that is why he left so all we need to do is get him and we can finish this case. He has Valkyrie. He is still injured so a couple of miles are the most he can do for a couple hours. My guess is that he went to the first place in his mind. The old Sanctuary where he hid for weeks after you got remnantised Tanith. We go there, get Valkyrie back, kick Sanguine and then go see the London Eye. But first." He spun around and punched Fletcher so hard that he flew back to the other side of the room. Nodding to himself, he carried on walking.

The others followed, looking back at Fletcher then jumped into the back of the Bentley.

The car journey was quiet, Skulduggery didn't like it when it was boring without Valkyrie, but he couldn't stand thinking that she could be injured or worse. He forced the thoughts out of his mind and sped down the road. Skulduggery looked in the mirror, Tanith and Ghastly was next to each other occasionally making a comment about what had just happened. No-one sat in Valkyrie's seat. Then Skulduggery saw Declan sat quietly, pale. 'Maybe he does properly love her?' They did suit each other but what if they moved away and he was left alone. The confusing questions stalked him in his mind and filled the journey. He snapped awake as he braked outside the old Sanctuary.

"Let's go." He murmured silkily and slid out the Bentley.


	30. This is England Part 6

This is England- Part Six

Valkyrie's POV

When Valkyrie woke up, she was stiff and couldn't understand why. She tried to roll onto her belly to get up but she couldn't. She convinced herself that she was just tired. Then she tried to move her hands and then she realised that she was handcuffed. Great. She managed to move herself so her back was against the pole but it meant her hands were twisted painfully. Sighing she looked around at her surroundings. Much like where they had been before although this place was less dirty and just plain. It had old desks and a few old chairs thrown around. But other than that she was alone, well she thought this until she heard Sanguine cackle and the door open.

General POV

Skulduggery strolled out of the Bentley and smashed the door open with his left foot. The others followed. They began searching but the old sanctuary was twice as big as the Irish, to make it easier Tanith barely remembered what the place looked like. Frustrated, Skulduggery told everyone to split up and look for clues. Skulduggery wasn't in the mood for Scooby Doo jokes Tanith found as she started making quotes.

Valkyrie's POV

He came closer, she couldn't do anything except shout at him, and then he crouched down next to her and pressed the razor to her throat. She wasn't going down without a fight and kicked him in the stomach. She guessed where his wound would have been and used all her desperation and anger into one incredible kick. He fell onto his back and was on the verge of tears. Valkyrie thought about mocking him but decided to keep quiet and hope that Skulduggery would hurry up.

Sanguine forced himself up, cursing her a dozen times over. She waited patiently until he was almost on her then she kicked out again, the razor flew from his grip into the darkness. Fuming with rage and excitement, he grabbed her and started laying down punches. Most of the impact was absorbed by the jacket although his grip on her neck and hip was starting to throb and made her temples pulsate. She cried out again for him to get off but instead he grinned wider. She felt the all too familiar feeling of unconsciousness taking over and welcomed it, as she went under she swore she could hear someone calling out to her. But it was too late.

General POV

They had tried wandering around by themselves but ending up just getting lost, they met back where they started.

"What do we do?" Tanith asked.

"I don't know, try calling her phone." Skulduggery asked Declan. When yet again there was no answer Skulduggery almost lost it. Just then he heard movement. He signalled for everyone to be quiet and used his non-existent ears, it was Valkyrie he could tell.

"VALKYRIE! CAN YOU HEAR ME? WHERE ARE YOU VALKYRIE?" He called out, doing his best job at keeping his voice level.

They all walked upstairs and eventually found the room, Skulduggery peaked round and saw Sanguine hunched over something. Skulduggery looked back at the others, counted down on his fingers then burst through.

Valkyrie's POV

Yet again she woke up in the awkward position on the floor. She panicked that Sanguine had cut her but as far as she could tell she was unharmed. He must have not known what to do once she had passed out. Her luck ran out as he returned with a large sledgehammer. She knew she wouldn't be able to protect herself from it and instead started preparing herself for pain. He crouched over her and raised the sledgehammer. Just as it came down a roar filled the room making Sanguine jump and miss the target of her legs. Relief washed through her as she saw Sanguine pushed up again the wall, Skulduggery promptly slapped Sanguine.

Tanith and Declan rushed over while the men attacked Sanguine. They tried to undo the handcuffs but had to use Tanith's sword to break them in the end. The pulled herself up but then gasped as her knee buckled, she hit the floor hard and couldn't find the energy to move so just lay there, in the state between sleep and awake.

General POV

They charged in, Skulduggery leading. He saw the raised sledgehammer and roared, all emotions behind it. Satisfied he had scared Sanguine he started to use all his force on him, enjoying each slap. Ghastly joined him and he threw Sanguine over to him. Taking turns.

Just then he saw Valkyrie on the floor and rushed over to her. Glad she was alive and relatively unharmed he swung her over his shoulder. He almost smiled at the memory of when she had gotten drunk at one of the sanctuaries ball's and had to be taken home the same way. But under the conditions he just walked out the room with Declan and waited in the Bentley for Tanith and Ghastly to finish beating Sanguine.

Skul Crew POV

Valkyrie woke up a couple hours later and was quickly treated for her leg injury. It turned out sanguine had stomped on her leg while she was passed out. It didn't matter though, he was behind bars again and she was fixed. She got to chose between a Zimmer frame, crutches or a wheelchair for a couple days. She decided on the crutches as they looked most normal.

With a couple days left in London, they went sightseeing. Valkyrie awed at the huge sculptures and landscapes. Valkyrie and Declan walked together had chips and did things that most normal people did. The things she had never wanted to do with Fletcher, she was sure that it was just because she had grown up though. Tanith and Ghastly did the same and Skulduggery opted to do paperwork and occasionally was forced into going with them to a local pub or going on the tube.

Valkyrie will never get over the sight of seeing Skulduggery being chased by hundreds of pigeons out of her mind, and neither will the mages that see the video...

_**Hope you have enjoyed the story! I think I will go back to little drabbles and one-shots for a couple weeks now:)**_


	31. A Surprising meeting

A Surprising meeting

Yet another meeting was occurring at the Sanctuary. They were back in Ireland and were bored out of their minds. Valkyrie and Tanith were making faces at each other from across the table. Skulduggery and Ghastly were drumming their fingers/bones against the wooden table to an old tune that Valkyrie couldn't recognise. Declan was stifling a laugh at Valkyrie's impression of a monkey.

All of a sudden a cough filled the large meeting room and everyone stopped to look at who had done it. Madam Mist raised an eyebrow at the childish behaviour being displayed by Valkyrie and Tanith. A few of the other mages laughed and others just sighed. Madam Mist beckoned them over with her finger. Emotionless, they got up and walked to the stage in front of everyone. On the way they saw the smiling faces of Declan and Ghastly.

"So glad you are finding the meeting so interesting, for your immature actions you will stand at the front. You behave like children, I treat you like children."

Sniggering Valkyrie and Tanith hoped that someone would argue for them, no-one did though as they were glad something interesting was happening. It seemed no-one was finding Madam Mist's talk about how they should protect themselves from the Welsh sorcerers. Just then, Madame Mist stood up, as she did a low grumble filled the room. Valkyrie and Tanith's eyebrows reached the sky and they looked at each other in disbelief. Madam Mist had farted in front of everyone.

Over the years they had known each other, they had always acted and pretended to be shocked or angry at Skulduggery when he had been silly or inappropriate. Now they had to work exceedingly hard to not burst into laughter. No-one else had heard the back-door whistle and they were stuck on the stage.

Risking a glance at each other, almost caving in as the tension built. Just then the mages in the first few rows began to shuffle uneasily. They had smelt it. They looked at Tanith in annoyance, accusing her. She simply looked at Madam Mist and tried to convince everyone she had done it. Within a few seconds the whole of the room was looking at each other in disgust. Blaming each other silently. Skulduggery sat there confused as to why everyone was rustling and fidgeting in their seats.

Valkyrie and Tanith were slowly trying to leave the stage as the smell became unbearable. Valkyrie had lifted her jumper over her nose, trying to block the smell out. Finally Madam Mist turned around from writing on the board to see people looking at her, disgusted. Shaking her head she dismissed everyone.

At once, everyone sprinted to the door and ran outside. Breathing in fresh air they all began to talk about who had done it. Valkyrie and Tanith announced the culprit and immediately everyone started laughing and began to leave the sanctuary to either go back inside or to their homes.

"So what was all that about?" Skulduggery asked as they walked to the Bentley.

Valkyrie and Tanith gave up and burst into fits of laugher, leaning on each other as their tears of joy spilled. Declan and Ghastly just laughed as well, dragging them to the car as Skulduggery wondered what had made them laugh so hard.


	32. A Night out in Dublin

A Night out in Dublin

Valkyrie and Tanith were getting ready to go into town, Tanith had promised to take her clubbing for months. Skulduggery didn't approve but Valkyrie was too excited to care as she let Tanith do her makeup.

"So what's it like being in a proper club. I've only been to the small one in Haggard and that was really boring."

"Well." Tanith mumbled as she held Valkyrie's face still with one hand and dabbed her eyelid with the other. "It's got loads of cool music, loads of men and loads of alcohol. Although you only need to worry about two of the three as you have Declan, we can still party."

"Cool, how do I look?"

"Wait a minute, I'm almost done then we can go." Valkyrie nodded making Tanith curse and hold her face tighter. "Finished." Tanith proudly said at last making Valkyrie jump up and grab her purse.

They slowly made their way down the stairs as they chatted about the evening ahead of them. Their laughter rang through Gordon's mansion, making Skulduggery and Ghastly get up and meet them outside as they stepped into the Taxi waiting.

"I still think I should have taken you instead of going by taxi" Skulduggery moaned.

"I don't think we would blend in if we arrived in the Bentley. Thanks for the offer though." Valkyrie hugged Skulduggery and got in the cab. "Tell Declan where I am!" Valkyrie shouted out the window as the taxi pulled away. Then the girls turned to each other with their sneaky faces on. IT was going to be a good night.

Three hours later and around quite a few gallons of alcohol later, the girls were thrown out of the club. They were definitely the life of the party and many people started leaving once the two pretty and drunk girls left. Neither of the girls had gotten with a man, but they had met some interesting young girls with whom they danced with.

"Do you- Do you know that that man is rude." Valkyrie slurred as she picked herself up from the gutter.

"I know Valerie, he is rude." Tanith murmured face down.

"HEY! YOU CALLED ME VALERIE! BIATCH!" Valkyrie screeched and pulled Tanith up off the floor.

"Whoops my bad, oh look a taxi!" She giggled and crept up behind the taxi. She waited a few seconds until she jump on top of the bonnet and waved at the driver who was now gawping.

Then suddenly yet gracefully she got down and opened the door for Valkyrie then joined her in the back of the taxi. Tanith tapped the window between the worried looking driver and them. When he opened the hatch she slurred an address and after a while of figuring out what the drunk lady was saying the driver finally understood what she said and drove them home. It was half two in the morning and he could be bothered to talk to strangers so put the radio on.

Six degrees of Separation by The Script came on.

"OH MY GOD! THE SCRIPT!" Valkyrie cried out and began singing along as loud as she could.

Tanith vaguely knew who they were but joined along and enjoyed it.

The taxi driver laughed at the drunk wails.

Once they finally got home, Tanith threw her clutch bag at the driver, unable to get the money out. He took out the right amount of money and then threw it back at them. Chuckling to himself, he drove away. Valkyrie continued to sing the lyrics as Tanith started banging on the door.

Ghastly opened the door just and the two girls passed out simultaneously.

"Skul, get your bony ass out here and drag your student inside. They are impressively drunk." Ghastly hollered as Skulduggery joined him, saw the two unconscious girls and began laughing. They picked up the girls in the fireman's life and walked up the stairs and dumped them on Tanith's bed.

"I must saw Valkyrie, I foresaw this happening, you getting drunk with Tanith and ending up dead to the world. At least Ghastly knows how to work the camera app on this damn phone The two men laughed as they put the pictures up as the girls Facebook picture.

_With school the only times I am able to do anything is the weekends, oh well. Hope you enjoy and Read and Review. I am feeling lonely on FanFiction..._


	33. Women Drivers

Women Drivers

Valkyrie was lying at Gordon's mansion just watching some random afternoon T.V when her phone rang. She followed the noise and finally found it behind her bed from when she had thrown it. She saw the caller ID and smiled.

"Hey Tan, wazzup?"

"Val, come to mine, I've got something to show you-" She cut off leaving Valkyrie fearing for her life.

"Who was that?" Boomed a deep and velvety voice from behind her that made her inside soar.

"Oh hi Skulduggery, didn't realise you were behind me, yeah that was Tanith and apparently she has something to show me. Could you give me a lift pretty please?"

"Hmmph. Fine but only so that I can supervise and make sure that you are away from sugar, energy drinks and cars. I'm amazed the Bentley is still alive after that last time you crashed her." Skulduggery grumbled as they walked to the car.

"I told you! It wasn't my fault, the tree jumped out at me I swear! They are against me, all of them are! Evil trees!" Valkyrie shouted jokingly and shook her fist at the nearest tree making Skulduggery chuckled and shake his head in shame, he then pushed Valkyrie into the passenger seat and sped off down the road.

Eventually they arrived at Tanith and Ghastly little house and knocked on the front door, when they got no answer they go on their guard and jumped the fence, squashing a gnome in the process. Suddenly Taniths cry filled the back garden and together they sprinted to the garage, kicked the door open; fire ready to throw and gun aimed at the nearest person.

However what they were expecting was to find Tanith sat on a motorbike slowly pulling off a plaster. Her eyes flew wide open and jumped in shock as the two put their weapons away.

"Sorry Tanith, we thought you were being attacked, I see you're fighting your own battle at the moment." Valkyrie joked as she walked over and hugged her big sister.

"Haha. Very funny, Kenspeckle told me to take it off but it kinda hurts.. anyway here is the surprise." She stepped off the bike and walked over to a large object covered in a large blanket, she threw it off and revealed a shiny motorbike.

"Whoa. This is for me?" Valkyrie asked while doing a very good impression of a goldfish.

"Yup, let's go for a ride!" Beamed Tanith and threw Valkyrie a helmet who caught it and literally leapt on the bike. Skulduggery rushed over and taped Valkyrie's helmet until she took it off.

"Hello?"

"You are not driving a motorbike with Tanith. It's not safe for two young ladies to be on these nasty things." Skulduggery warned.

"Oi! Don't be sexist. Women can and do drive as we shall show you." Tanith retorted and smoothly skidded out of the garage onto the road. Valkyrie started up the engine and looked at Skulduggery who looked deflated.

"Please. Just be safe."

"I'll do my best." She gave him one her best smiles and followed Tanith who was almost out of Ireland at the speed she was going.

Skulduggery stood by himself in the garage and thought about following them but decided to let them learn their own lesson. "They'll crash by the end of the day." Skulduggery said aloud and went to his office to do some paperwork.

A couple hours later Skulduggery turned on the TV and started roaring with joy as the news channels showed two bike crashed on a motor way, causing hundreds of cars to be stuck in traffic. It panned over to show to ladies being told off by a mortal policeman, Valkyrie looked sheepishly at the camera whereas Tanith wanted nothing more than to punch the police man in the face…

Wow! It's been ages since I have posted on here, oh well I'll try to do one a week until the Christmas holidays


	34. Training With Tanith Part 2

Training with Tanith-Part 2

After their last meeting at the sanctuaries gym, Valkyrie refused to fight Tanith just for her amusement. So she was not happy when she received a text from Tanith the next day asking her to get ready for another training session. Grumbling she hauled herself out of bed and got ready, cursing her name in multiple languages.

Valkyrie was snuggled on the sofa and found herself getting rather interested in Jeremy Kyle and voiced her opinion loud enough for Skulduggery to rush in gun raised at the TV. Laughing Valkyrie began to explain to Skulduggery about the family that had the dad not wanting the daughter and the mother hooked on plant food as a Hallucinogen. By the end Skulduggery was silent and just nodded then slyly left the room.

Valkyrie had no idea how long she had been sat there until the rhythmic sound of someone knocking on the door made her jump up and sprint to it. Tanith plodded in and turned off the TV much to Valkyries disgust.

"Right, you sure you don't want to train in one to one combat?" Tanith asked with one hand on her hip and eyebrow raised making Valkyrie feel guilty even though she hadn't done anything.

"Yeah, I was aching all last night from that. I don't like fighting you, it brings back bad memories and you always beat me…" She trailed off to sit down on the chair outside.

"Alright, I guess you don't need my special training now anyway, you're much older and stronger than I anticipated. However you do fail in one area that nearly always ruins our 'plans'." She used her fingers to show that they never have plans, just synchronised ideas.

"Oh really? And what might that be my dear friend?" She replied sarcastically.

"You get kidnapped or something like that in which we have to break you out and before you say anything I don't need lessons either."

Valkyrie just stared with one eyebrow raised.

"So today I am going to teach you how not keep yourself away from a bad guy long enough for one of us to turn up. I'll give you a 10 second head start and then I'm coming to hunt you down! Friendship aside for one minute!"

"WAIT! WHAT?" Valkyrie yelled in shock. But Tanith had already begun counting down so she ran as far as she could for the open gate. When she reached it she turned around long enough to see Tanith taking out her handcuffs and start running for her. Squealing she ran outside, around the tree a couple times. Laughing and crying at the same time as Tanith quoted as many bad guys as she could while she chased Valkyrie.

Tanith jumped forward and grabbed Valkyries jacket, Valkyrie panicked and wriggled out of it then made for the house. She got up the stairs and almost into the nearest bedroom when her world shook as she realised Tanith had pushed her forward. She hit the ground hard and tried to push herself up but Tanith was already on her and shackled her wrists before she could react. Tanith then did a nearly perfect example of Dr Evils laugh.

"Hey, that's not fair. You pushed me!" Valkyrie whined as she lay on the floor.

"Yes Valkyrie, it's obviously in the evil persons rule book that you're not allowed to push someone over. You're just annoyed that you lost!" Tanith chimed as she picked up Valkyrie and put her on the bed. Tanith sat down next to her and started explaining tips on how to successfully run away from someone like changing direction continuously while also going in one direction, however all Valkyrie could think of was One Direction and how to kick Tanith in the face for handcuffing her.

Skulduggery and Ghastly returned home from the sanctuary hours later to find the house quiet. Too Quiet. Suspiciously they crept up the stairs to find Tanith sitting on a handcuffed Valkyrie, trying to make her say that Harry is the best looking member of one direction and not Niall.


	35. The Nightmare

The Nightmare

Valkyrie found going to be more and more painful, not only did it make her head ache but she felt mentally exhausted. They always had the same theme about them, death. It was just up to her dreams to decide whether it would be her that fell to her peril or a close friend. No matter what she always found morning a task to decipher whether it was real or not as she called her close friend that she had killed in her dream, Tanith would always laugh and call her crazy but Skulduggery always worried deeply and felt sad whenever he got a panic-stricken call from Valkyrie, shouting if he was alive. He would always joke saying that she had forgotten he died many years ago but it never put her mind at ease.

So as she climbed into her window and slowly got herself ready for bed she began to worry what would happen that night. Her body was ready to drop face-first into the pillow but on the inside she wanted to go and do anything else in the world, anything.

Eventually she sat on the edge of the bed and she realised she was shaking, annoyed with herself for being such a wimp she laid back under the covers to find some warmth. She let her eyes droop and felt the dark iciness flow through her.

She looked around, she was in an arena, a fighting arena like the gladiators she had seen in a movie. She heard a voice calling out from behind her. She recognised it instantly, Ghastly. She wanted to turn around and warn him to run away as fast as he could but she couldn't move. Suddenly she heard her own voice calling out, it was angry, why was she so angry at Ghastly? The voice started chanting out the same sentence "Good things to happen to good people." Finally the body she was looking out of turned around and she saw Ghastly.

He was leaning on one leg, the other obviously wretched horrendously. His ribs smashed and leaning to the side. His face now shredded horizontally will blood weeping down his face. Her heart throbbed as she saw one her close friends in agony. The body moved nearer to him and with every step she felt her arms being twisted more and more until it was agony. She barely managed to keep her eyes unscrewed in time to hear her voice stop chanting and leaned in close to Ghastly.

"You don't deserve her." Was the hollow sentence that made them both gasp.

But before Ghastly could defend himself, the body reached out and drove its fingers through Ghastly, wriggling through his ribs and tickling his heart. Valkyrie felt sick and started begging to wake up. The body got tired and ripped the heart out, throwing it as far as it could.

Ghastly fell backwards instantly, dead. She heard her voice laugh her laugh, the one she always well did when the Skull crew was relaxing. Now it was laughing it over his dead body. The body stopped laughing and walked closer to the body making Valkyrie feel sick from pain and exhaustion, it leant over so Valkyrie was looking at the reflection in the blood.

It was her face.

Screaming from the shock she suddenly managed to break free and she sat forward, looking around desperately she saw that she was back in her room covered in sweat and looking flustered. She called Ghastly who was very unhappy to be woken up so early. She made some coffee and just went downstairs to watch Jeremy Kyle repeats.

*It's been quite a long time since I've been on here, silly school…*


	36. End of Time - Part 1

End of time

Valkyrie and Skulduggery driving back to the sanctuary when suddenly Valkyries phone beeped.

"Oh shite! What the hell is that?!" She cried out.

"That my dear, would be your portable telephone." Skulduggery simply explained, trying to let his grin creep over.

"Oh. Shh you." Valkyrie grumbled as she fumbled around in her jacket pocket for her phone. She flipped it open and found a text message from Ghastly which read:

VAL AND SKUL COME TO SANCTUARY MEETING ROOM 6. NOW.

"Ghastly wants us to go to meeting room 6 for something important." Valkyrie informed.

"Really. Hmm I wonder what is so important that it needs us, the great detectives."

"He was rather blunt in his message, bordering rude." Valkyrie muttered to herself as the conversation died down.

They finally arrived and found herds of sorcerers and mages piling into the giant hall/ arena. Tall figures dressed completely in black stood like shepherds, forcing the resistant mages inside.

"Should we go in?" Valkyrie asked as they hid around the corner.

Skulduggery paused silently until he saw Ghastly in the crowd, their eyes met and Ghastly did his best to portray confusion as to what was happening. "Yes." Skulduggery finally decided,

They joined the back of the crowd and calmly walked past the threatening figures. Valkyrie inhaled and immediately regretted it as they stench made her feel ill and uneasy. Once inside they were ordered to line up. Some of the words best sorcerers in the same room, and none of them daring to speak.

Valkyrie started looking around her to see if she could recognise faces. None of them stood out until Fletchers crazy hair was noticeable three rows in front of her. She quickly looked away where she then saw China. Their eyes met like Ghastly and Skulduggery's did earlier although there wasn't the friendly feeling she got as they did.

There was something more important to worry about though as suddenly that friendly voice she had missed chilled through her bones. Valkyrie looked up to the front where a certain blonde stood.

"You must be wondering why I have gathered you here today." Tanith started. "It's because I have recently found out from a source that Darquesse's coming has arrived. It has been traced back here to the Irish sanctuary and I think that we all feel as though we want to track her down and destroy her once and for good."

The crowd began murmuring and glaring at each other. Valkyrie felt sick, she looked at Skulduggery who remained still. Her head started pounding, she felt everyone was staring into her and felt as though she would faint.

"Please could China Sorrows come up to the stage." Tanith asked loudly while making eye contact with Skulduggery. Ghastly and Skulduggery looked at each other again. Trying to restrain themselves from charging up to the stage and grabbing the Remnant. China slowly got to the top of the stage.

Tanith whispered something into her ear and suddenly China rolled up her sleeve and slapped a tattoo with incredible force they a few more with concentrated in her eyes.

"She is initiating the process, she is breaking the barrier and Darquesse will be forced out so we can dispose of her here and now. The Remnant now looked Valkyrie in the eye and smiled the dirty smile that Tanith had done numerous times before when she was Tanith. Valkyrie was beginning to fill with pain, it was behind her eyes, inside her brain. Darquesse was whispering to her, teasing her.

Skulduggery squeezed her hand while Valkyrie stood her ground hoping it would end but the Remnant continued staring at her. She gasped at the intense pain that was now in her legs like they were on fire. People nearby turned and say it was her. Valkyrie cracked her eyes open and saw Fletcher staring her in disbelief, as did many others that she had been close to.

"And we have a winner!" The Remnant roared as people parted for her to walk closer to Valkyrie. "It seems, that the great Valkyrie Cain is the true destroyer of the world! Now I'm sure that we shall now all take pleasure in removing this burden now before it developing into a much bigger problem." Tanith bellowed and she unsheathed her sword and approached Valkyrie.

"Back off Remnant." Ghastly warned as he and Skulduggery guarded Valkyrie.

Valkyrie finally succumbed to the pain and collapsed, the feeling inbetween sleep and awake filling her, no matter how hard she tried she closed her eyes.

What awoke was no longer Valkyrie, it was her. Darquesse stood and surveyed her surroundings. Some sorcerers had begun throwing fire and attack but she removed them with a simple flick of her wrist. It was too easy for her and she wanted a challenge.

She turned to where Skulduggery had been but instead saw Lord Vile standing, armed.

"How?" Darquesse asked with a raised eyebrow. Vile didn't reply, he simply attacked Darquesse.

They jumped punched, lit, slashed each other until finally they parted away to regain breath. In this space Darquesse stooped slightly and had a grimace on her face. Vile also stopped but in confusion as to why Darquesse was in pain.

"IT'S VALKYRIE! SHE IS BREAKING THROUGH HER MIND! SHE WOULD BE IN CONTROL OF DARQUESSES BODY AND POWER!" China roared from outside the fighting arena.

With this piece of knowledge, Valkyrie started kicking out, she felt as though she was punching out in heavy water but every kick made Darquesse gasp a bit louder so she continued until finally she opened her eyes and though she was back to normal. But instead she saw people glaring at her in fear and she understood the power she knew had and knew what she had to do. Immediately Valkyrie sprinted up to Vile at a tremendous speed and slapped him, making his helmet tumble. She then used her necromancy to rip out his internal core which brought out a shattering scream. She slashed it with another web and it turned to powder. Up stood Skulduggery. Valkyrie felt like she had been punched across her jaw as her world shook but she ignored it and turned to the Remnant.

She did the same but gentler for fear she might kill Taniths body. As she ripped the Remnant out the leather body collapsed to the floor. Ghastly rushed over and woke her up. Tanith leant forwards, slightly confused and dizzy. Valkyrie would have smiled back but she hurt so much she turned away to do the final object quickly.

Valkyrie concentrated hard and using Darquesse imagined a portal between life and death, used a tendril she pulled someone out of the portal. Kenspeckle slowly got to his feet as he tried to come to terms with what just had happened. As the three joyful and freed friends all smiled, Valkyrie collapsed, exhausted. Immediately the others sprinted over to help her.

Hey, I almost forgot I had this account. Whoops anyways this is how I like to imagine the next book will include with Tanith and Kenspeckle back but oh well


	37. End of Time Part 2

End of Time- Part 2

Valkyrie slowly opened her eyes, it was painful and blurred. She felt a strand of hair fall above her left eyebrow and reached up to flick it away. But she couldn't, her chest, arms, legs and feet were restrained. She started to panic, her eyes were sore and she barely made out figures towering over her, she used all her energy and force to break free. Valkyrie was so scared she let out a yelp as she tried to wriggle free.

"Val, is it you?" Tanith asked. Taking a step closer and kneeling down next to the bed.

Valkyrie lay still and she matched up the sound to her close friend. Her eyesight was still terrible and she wasn't sure which figure was her sister so she just replied as she would to Tanith.

"Yes Tan, now would someone please tell me why the hell I'm tied to a bed?!" Valkyrie asked trying to keep calm. Another figure joined Taniths side and they entwined fingers, Ghastly, Valkyrie thought. The final person approached on her left.

"Yes, terribly sorry about that Valkyrie, but after you collapsed we weren't sure whether you still had Darquesse inside you. It was for your own safety." Skulduggery explained. Valkyrie breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, could someone let me out please?" Valkyrie asked politely.

"Not yet." A voice called out from another room.

"Kenspeckle says no." Tanith carried the message on to the others. "You were injured very badly after you controlled 'her'. Thank you Valkyrie, I just want to apologize for whatever that Remnant thing ever did or threatened to do." Tanith said solemnly.

"Tan, we all know that it wasn't your fault, it was the Remnant and you're welcome" Valkyrie smiled. "But I don't really remember what happened. To be honest I barely remember going into the hall and falling asleep. My head hurts, I can't see and there's an unviolent Tanith Low. It must have been epic!"

"Thank you Valkyrie, you destroyed Vile. I can rest easy knowing he isn't coming back and I no longer have such a big secret. Although you still have Darquesse inside you we can work with the sanctuary into finding a way to extract it. With Ghastly on our side we can have priority." Skulduggery explained.

Valkyrie simply nodded as she tried to piece together what she had been told. Suddenly Kenspeckle walked into the room with a tray full of medical equipment. Everyone smiled at him, glad he was back and even he was slightly happier than he was before he was killed. Valkyrie couldn't see who this person was.

This mysterious doctor pulled out a needle and gently pressed it into Valkyries arm, making her flinch and Skulduggery's heart melt. But she felt the impact almost instantly and suddenly saw Kenspeckle smiling at her.

"B-B-BUT YOU'RE DEAD?! I SAW THE REMNANT MURDER YOU?! WHAT!" Valkyrie cried out obviously confused.

"She doesn't remember." Skulduggery explained.

"Oh, well you somehow managed to bring me back from dead with the power of Darquesse. Thank you. Now I can get back to fixing you." Kenspeckle explained as he examined Valkyrie.

A couple of minutes later he concluded. "She's fine, just worn down. No cases for a couple days." And left the room. Valkyrie sagged and started sulking. Skulduggery untied the restraints as they walked to the Bentley and Taniths motorbike.

"Don't worry Val, I need you to fill me in with the details since I've been gone. How about a sleepover tonight, all of us otherwise I'm sure the men will get lonely and go to the sanctuary bar alone again…"

"Sure Tanith but no truth or dare again, I can't believe you dared me to sleep in McDonalds. I can't go there anymore; they even have my face on their banned board on the entrance. It's so embarrassing I can never get Chicken McNuggets again!"

And they all drove home and endured a night filled with alcohol, fire and laughter…


End file.
